I've watched Hamilton 8 times. I regret nothing.

We're well past the halfway point of the year, and I can't say it's gone particularly well for anyone. I feel like if I were to create an itemized list of grievances, it would take a while.

But one good thing has come from all of this...the release of Hamilton on Disney+.

I was a bit late to the game, and was introduced to it through my satellite radio subscription, and I have been a Hamilfan ever since. I knew the soundtrack back to front, including some of the rap parts. I had dreams of which character I would want to be if I was so lucky to be cast (the answer is Eliza or Peggy/Maria Reynolds, by the way). I even got Jamie into it, and we went to see it on my 30th birthday.

A bit of history. It came out during the Obama administration, which makes this epic for two reasons. We finally had a black man in office, something the Founding Fathers could never have dreamed of. Also, it was a musical told almost exclusively through rap and hip-hop, and cast only POC. It's genius. Telling a story from which POC were excluded through a medium created by POC. It's a big old fuck you to history. During a performance by the cast at the White House before Obama left office, Christopher Jackson (who plays George Washington) sings "One Last Time". It's Washington telling Alexander Hamilton that it's his time to leave the job and that he needs to prepare the country for what comes next, and that they'll be okay without him. A black man playing the first president performing this in front of the first black president is so transcendent.

But now...with everything that's going on...it hits different. People are no longer filled with the comfort of having an intelligent, eloquent President who loved his family and loved his country and genuinely wanted the best for his constituents. The current administration is cloaked in dishonesty and deceit and all but openly encourages violence.

Now, we relate to the revolution. When Lafayette and Hamilton say "immigrants, we get the job done", we feel it in our soul. We acknowledge the many contributions that immigrants have made to our communities. Hamilton is the guy who rushes into every opportunity, who fights with every breath for what he believes in. And we cheer him on because we have something to fight for. When they say "history has its eyes on you", it's true. The world is looking to us, the millenials and Gen-Zers to bring about change, to undo the damage that has been inflicted in these past three years.

Now, the founding fathers themselves were problematic. Washington owned slaves. Hamilton traded slaves, yet did not own any himself. Hercules Mulligan's role in the Revolution would not have been accomplished without his slaves. But like all works based on history, there is dramatic license taken with the truth.

Yet we can find wisdom. Hamilton refusing to throw away his shot and his relentless pursuit of setting up the Treasury obviously was worth it. Centuries of administrations have fucked the economy back and forth so many times, but still it stands. Burr's words of "wait for it" remind us that not every situation requires us to charge forth headfirst. Sometimes, all you can do is accept that there are things out of your control and that all you can do is be patient.

As of the end of this post, I am currently on my 9th viewing while networking on LinkedIn...and I show no signs of getting sick of it.