Yellow. Green. Red, white, blue. Fireworks bam and pop and swim into the stars before our eyes this weekend in honor of the United States of America. Eagles fly from pick-up truck windows to the backs of leather jackets, from the hats of youngsters to the hearts of the military. A nation hums to life in great "ooohs" and "aaahs" as living gold glitters, dances and dies all across the Home of the Brave.

I believe there are things to celebrate; I believe there are things to reconsider. I believe on this — the fourth day of the seventh month of the 2016th year (of our Lord or of the Common Era) — yes, on this day, Americans must ask: Are we, honestly, the Home of the Brave?

But I don’t want to sing the song of America. I want to focus on something smaller: your phone. Give it a gander and think back: Have you responded to everyone who has texted you? Now, yes, I realize there is only so much time in the day, but I mean, think about the off-moments, in the time where there has been a break.

Did you text back?

If you didn’t, no worries — just shoot them a text now. No harm done.

If you still didn’t text back, may I ask why? Do you feel like it’s been too long? Do you think they’ll be mad at you for not replying sooner? Do you expect them to punish you or something? (Bad on them if they do.)

Or is it just, well, are they the dullest bores on the face of the earth? Are they people who will respond to, “How was your week?” with hours-long catalogs of what they did each day?

Are you mad at them? Did they hurt you? Are they weird?

Well, text them anyway!

"Hey Josh,

Get off of your passively aggressive high horse. We will text you when we text you.

Sincerely,

Everyone"

High horse? You think I haven’t neglected to follow up on messages, too? There’s an unread message in my inbox from March 5, that I hadn’t clicked on until today because I felt like a (insert-not-Joshlike-word) for having neglected it so long and was afraid to leave a read receipt.

We miss things. We make mistakes. But we can fix them if we try.

The main reasons I expect people have for not texting back are due to anger, sadness, fear of punishment, fear of boredom or fear of “losing class” by speaking to someone beneath you — or, you know, outright malice.

There are more complex reasons, but for the basic ones, the common thread is a fear of pain or loss. You may not get to be angry if you see the other person’s side. You may not get to stay sad if they can show you a way to be happy. You may get punished by cruel words for responding late, by boring monologues for starting up a conversation, or by causing societal upset by speaking to a person not worth your time.

All these things could happen, but it’s the Fourth of July and I’m going to play the "America" card. If we are part of the Home of the Brave — or if we would like to create a country worthy of that name — how can we allow ourselves to settle for not doing the right thing, just to protect ourselves? That sounds pretty far from brave to me.

"Hey Josh,

OK, so I texted them, and they guilt-tripped me with passive aggressive texts for, like, a solid 30 minutes. But that’s cool by you, I guess?

Thanks for everything,

Anonymous"

No. That’s not cool by me. That’s not cool at all. That is wrong.

Just because someone doesn’t get back to you, doesn’t mean you have the right to hold it over their heads. People get bothered for not receiving responses because they try to read into things: Eric didn’t respond; Eric is mad at me. Kay didn’t respond; Kay thinks she’s better than me.

They feel hurt.

They feel debased.

They strike back.

That’s just as wrong as not responding. It’s possible they are only offended and hurting in the first place because of their own minds. Friends will honestly forget to respond sometimes. Friends will have a whopping lot on their plate, too. People have their lives to deal with. If we are to live in the Home of the Brave, we have to be brave enough to trust in our own value and in the strength of our friendships; we need to not go wondering, worrying, fretting about.

So be brave enough to send a reply, whatever pain or loss may come, and also be brave enough to wait to hear from friends. If we are as brave as we aim to be, then this country can be our home.