We heard the roar of its engine before it came into view. The agile fighter jet appeared at altitude over the trees from the west. Suddenly it slowed, rolled into a dive, and plummeted right towards us. Seconds later, the pilot pulled her level and went screaming back over the National Mall, a giant contrail the only remaining testament to the aerial acrobatics. My three-year-old and his best friend screamed with delight, “That was a jet plane!” Even my wife had to admit the show was thrilling.

This was our view of the military airshow organized for the America 250 celebration on the National Mall. From the corner of 9th Street and Independence Avenue on Capitol Hill, we did not catch the display in its full splendor, but neither did our little ones have to endure the seething crowds and sultry climate further downtown.

Airshows are a curious phenomenon. They do display the U.S. military’s awesome firepower, which has overawed countries from Bosnia to Libya to Iran. But why is a display of military power so often coupled with occasions where peaceful civilians gather for entertainment? “We the People” view it as “our” military power. The reason why Americans can assemble in such security for a fireworks show or a baseball game is that our world-class military keeps potential threats far away.

In a small way, flyovers remind us of that — besides being spectacular in their own right — and that is very American.

Down on the National Mall, visitors from across America enjoyed a state fair with air-conditioned booths constructed for every state in the union. Many states used the booths to highlight some of their most unique aspects: the orange-scented Florida booth, Texas’s Alamo façade, a 7,000-pound Jersey Shore sandcastle, and a dinosaur rib cage from Montana. That such a variety of unique and interesting places can join together as “One nation under God” is also very American.

This year’s Fourth of July also brought scorching temperatures to Washington, D.C. The mercury notched triple digits, while heat indexes climbed to around 115 (in D.C., it’s never “a dry heat”). As might be expected when thousands of people linger outside during a heat warning, the celebration saw a significant number of “medical episodes.”

From midnight on July 3 to midnight on July 4, there were 699 people on the National Mall who required medical attention, according to reports from D.C. emergency services, the George Washington University Hospital, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including 40 who required emergency transport.

Although I sympathize with the seriousness of heat-related health conditions, the sheer number of medical episodes underscore American brashness. Admittedly, conditions were extreme and outside the normal experience of everyday Americans. Still, thousands of Americans — including many out-of-town tourists not used to the extensive walking necessary in D.C. — chose to venture out-of-doors for hours, despite official warnings. “I’ll drink plenty of water,” they thought. “I’ll be just fine.” Nearly 700 people who made that calculation overestimated their own ability. How very American.

However, those scorching temperatures plummeted like a fighter jet toward the evening, as storms rolled in with lightning severe enough to prompt event organizers to evacuate the National Mall, with hours of programming left until Trump’s keynote address and the ensuing fireworks. D.C. Homeland Security & Emergency Management invited attendees to shelter in a half-dozen federal office buildings, Smithsonian museums, or underground Metro stations. “The safety of our guests, performers, and staff is our top priority,” they stated.

This concern for the safety of human life is also a very American value, informed by America’s Christian heritage and reinforced by the Declaration of Independence’s recognition of the right to life.

Yet this evacuation turned out to be extremely chaotic. Attendees had already been screened by Secret Service and were required to leave the security perimeter and re-enter later. Some attendees who exited in the evacuation waited in line to re-enter the secure area for two hours and were still waiting when the fireworks began. Other attendees, perhaps predicting this sort of bottleneck, refused to leave seats near the stage until compelled to do so by tactical units, an eyewitness told TWS. (However, unlike a leftist riot, these America-loving rallygoers ultimately complied with law enforcement, and the incident passed without widespread arrests.)

The chaos of large crowds and slow-moving popular government is also very American.

However, the rain delay failed to quench the indomitable American spirit. “Storms bring luck to whatever the occasion,” President Trump put it. “They also make events a little bit more exciting! We will wait it out, I don’t care if it’s 2:00 o’clock in the morning, or in one hour from now.” Originally scheduled for 10 p.m., President Trump did not take the stage until 11:15 pm, and he spoke for roughly 40 minutes, pushing the fireworks show until after midnight. On America’s birthday, the whole crowd of out-of-town visitors became Cosmo Brown: “Come rain, come shine, come snow, come sleet, the show must go on.”

Yet Americans also enjoy great freedom to exercise our own individual “pursuit of happiness.” Those of us who are not night-owls never planned to view a firework show at 11 p.m. anyway. Instead of joining the joyous and soggy throng on the Mall, my young family did something quite different and also quite American.

We joined friends and their visiting relatives for smoked ribs, mac-and-cheese, watermelon, and mini-cheesecakes. We walked down to the corner to view the airshow a full 10 blocks from the Capitol. We set off an entire $50 pack of Costco fireworks (the “fountain” kind to meet D.C. regulations — impressive enough for toddlers).

In an even more American experience, a censorious neighbor walking by with her dog scolded the group for setting off fireworks “right next to houses” (it was in a park) and demanded we relocate to another park several blocks away. In America, she is free to hold that opinion and even to express it — likely out of concern for her dogs. But the dozen or so people in our party were equally free to hold a different opinion and to exercise freedoms even if other people disagreed with them.

For us, the night ended early, although our kiddos still got a late bedtime after the festivities. As we pulled back into our driveway, we could hear about 10 different neighbors setting off their own fireworks — enjoying America’s Independence Day in their own individual ways. That personal freedom is the most American thing of all.

“As we can see here tonight, after 250 years, the spirit of 1776 still lives within us all,” President Trump declared from the Mall. “It still roars in the hearts of our nation’s capital. It still burns in the heart of every patriot, thunders through every city and town. And it still lights the entire world with the glow of American liberty. And there is nothing like that.”