Core Clarity Co (LLC)

July 4th is framed as a celebration of freedom: we got to cookouts, fireworks, parades, see flags waving proudly in red, white, and blue. It’s meant to symbolize independence, liberty, and a collective pride in our national identity. But for many of us, especially those of us who are queer, trans, disabled, Black, Indigenous, people of color, immigrants, or living in poverty this holiday often just doesn’t feel right. Maybe even especially so, this year.

Because we know this- freedom, as it’s been defined and distributed in this country, has never been for all of us.

This isn’t about being ungrateful. It’s about being honest. It’s about taking the phrase “Liberty and Justice for all,” seriously.
It’s about telling the truth because healing and liberation both require truth-telling.

The Myth of Freedom

The United States was founded on stolen land, with wealth built by stolen labor. From its origins, freedom has been a privilege extended to some and denied to others. While the language of liberty is written into founding documents, we can’t separate that language from the violent systems that have upheld it such as enslavement, colonization, incarceration, surveillance, forced sterilization, family separation, and ableism, to name just scratch the surface.

This selective freedom shows up today, too:

• When disabled folks are denied access to life-saving care.
• When Black people are murdered by police with no accountability.
• When trans youth are criminalized for existing.
• When low-income communities are blamed for being “unwell” instead of resourced to heal.
• When immigrants come through our borders “the right way” and are detained while with their families, working, or attending mandatory court hearings to remain “legal.”

So when we ask, “Whose freedom?” we’re not being divisive. We’re naming the reality. When we name reality, we begin the work of collective repair.

When we challenge our country, it’s not for lack of love. It’s to hold it accountable in being the place that it was made to be- The Melting Pot.

Individualism Is Making Us Sick

American culture often equates freedom with independence. You’re supposed to stand on your own, be strong, be self-sufficient, and not rely on anyone. This is a myth- and a dangerous one.

So many people come into therapy feeling like a failure because they’re struggling under conditions no one was meant to carry alone. Capitalism, white supremacy, and ableism teach us that needing help is weakness, that burnout is just “poor time management,” and that suffering in silence is noble or tough. From a mental health perspective, this is profoundly harmful.

You are not broken for needing rest.
You are not a burden for needing support.
You are not weak for grieving the weight of the world.

Interdependence (not hyper-independence) is the foundation of mental wellness. Our well-being is not separate from one another and the systems that devalue our lives and labor isolate us, and that isolation erodes our ability to heal.

Redefining Freedom: Interdependence as Liberation

What if we reframed freedom, not as self-sufficiency, but as shared safety?
Could it look like:

• Community care without conditions?
• Access to affirming, trauma-informed therapy for all?
• Safety that isn’t based on policing?
• Housing, food, and healthcare as human rights– not privileges?

These aren’t abstract ideals, but are the building blocks of a world where more people get to survive and thrive.

Many of us are already doing this work. Mutual aid groups, disability justice organizers, trans-led clinics, and BIPOC-centered mental health spaces are not resisting and they’re reimagining. They’re showing us that freedom isn’t given, but it is created in community, solidarity, and care.

Letting July Be Complicated

For some people, July 4th is a long weekend and a break from work. For others, it’s a reminder of exclusion, grief, and fight. Both of these can be true and there’s room to hold the celebration and the sorrow, the joy and the anger, along with the hope and the heartbreak.

There’s nothing wrong with taking rest, lighting a sparkler, or watching fireworks. But we also get to ask:

• What does freedom look like in practice?
• Who gets to rest safely, and who doesn’t?
• What can we build together that truly honors all of us?

This July, we invite you to move gently, reflect deeply, and connect with the people and movements that remind you: we are not alone in this work.

True freedom is not something we achieve alone. It’s not something that can be legislated from the top down or found in a document from 1776. True freedom is collective, messy, and ongoing. It’s about care, access, justice, joy, grief, and the deep knowing that we belong to one another.

It shouldn’t have to happen to you, to matter.
Let’s keep building that freedom every single day.