[ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
In recent years, Americans have come together to celebrate the Fourth of July despite the deep political divisions roiling the nation\u2019s politics.<\/p>\n
This week, as the country geared up to toast its 250th anniversary on Saturday, those divisions remained<\/a>, of course. But many Americans had something more immediate to contend with: a dangerous heat wave<\/a> that blanketed much of the country in broiling temperatures.<\/p>\n Events of all kinds, official and otherwise, have been disrupted as a result<\/a>. In Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, organizers canceled a parade on Friday that was shaping up to be one of the biggest<\/a> in the city\u2019s history, amid expectations of triple-digit heat.<\/p>\n And yet despite the weather, despite the politics and the division, the party has gone on (as it has, in some places<\/a>, all year), with soapbox derby races, cattle drives, fife-and-drum corps performances and fireworks galore, as Americans in small towns and big cities across the country have celebrated the semiquincentennial in their own ways.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n