Independence Day 2024

 Happy Fourth . . . 

. . . in spite of everything.

Happy Fourth? Really?

I'm not feeling very patriotic this year.

In the past two years and change, America has proven itself to be a nation virtually unworthy of celebrating, since, thanks to COVID, it's proven to be a nation that's unable to tend to the well-being of its citizens and, thanks to Supreme Court rulings overruling legal abortion, gun-control laws, and environmental standards,  a nation that doesn't care about that inability.  And the January 6 insurrection underlined and put an exclamation point on that inconvenient truth.

There's an Independence Day parade near where I live happening today, and I'll probably go more out of curiosity than anything else; it's the first parade in this nearby town since 2019 thanks to COVID, and I'm wondering if there'll be new participants in the parade or the same old marching bands and floats that I've seen numerous times before in the past decade.  But patriotism?  I gave up on patriotism, actually, because there were too many scoundrels seeking refuge there.

My British ladyfriend Therisa, who famously performed as a ballerina statue mime in New York's Central Park before COVID hit, has endured the stupidity of her adopted homeland for twenty-two years.  She got through eight years of George Walker Bush's Presidency, threatened to leave the country if Sarah Palin became not President but Vice President, suffered the humiliation of performing at an event attended by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, watched the Tea Party take over Congress, saw "that fuckhead" (as she calls him) Donald Trump win the White House, and probably watched the January 6 insurrection unfold along with everyone else.  But the aftermath of 1/6, the rise in violent acts in These States, and the growing power of the far-right Supreme Court finally broke her resolve.  She and her American husband - and their three-year-old daughter - are packing up and pulling out.  They're planning to move to the south of Wales, where they don't have to worry about their daughter getting shot at school and where they also know their daughter will come out of the British school system smarter than if they had sent her to public school in the Big Apple.  I'm wondering how I can escape the United States without having to marry a British woman (though I do understand that Kate Beckinsale is single), and I now fantasize about living in a country where I can have free health care, unadulterated food, and the ability to purchase the Volkswagen of my choice (like a base Golf or a Polo).      

But for now, I'm one of the millions of Americans who want to get out but can't escape.  And I'm at a disadvantage due to the fact that I've never traveled outside North America ever.

The literary scholar Paul Fussell once said that July 4 was the one day that the United States should only receive praise.  I had once said that September 11 is the one day that the United States should only receive sympathy.  In 2022, I'm not so sure the U.S. is worthy of receiving either.

Independence Day 2020

Happy Fourth.  Stay safe.

Tanks A Lot

"There is one day of the year when America should receive nothing but praise.  That's July Fourth." - Paul Fussell (1924-2012) 

If Fussell were alive today, he might want to eat his own words.

On July 4, I usually publish a meme wishing greetings for Independence Day and leave it at that. But I can't do that this year.  Instead, I must speak out on how Donald Trump hijacked the national Independence Day celebration in Washington.  He plans to make a highly politicized speech not about the virtues of America but rather what he thinks the virtues of America are.  That is, military power - and lots of it.  VIP tickets to the celebration have been given to members of the Republican National Committee but not the Democratic National Committee.  Trump expects military leaders to flank him on either side when he appears, and he's leading a celebration that includes several of these.

This is an Abrams tank, a component of the U.S.'s mighty arsenal that has been used in many a military adventure, which Trump, I've been led to understand, wanted to have parade down the streets of Washington to show how bad-ass we are - no, how bad-ass he is.  These tanks are huge enough to crush rocky terrain, as well as asphalt. That may be why they will be merely parked outside the Lincoln Memorial but not be paraded down Constitution Avenue.  But we all know that Trump - and the Republican Party, which has made it clear for decades that Democrats are not a legitimate part of America - would love to have them in motion.  This celebration - dubbed a "Salute To America" - will be a political rally masquerading as a national celebration, and at a great monetary cost, with Trump acting like the dictator he wants to be, looking down at all he controls.

And by the way,  I can only think of one time a President sent tanks to a major American city.

And it didn't work out well for Detroit in 1967 either.

Trump got this idea from watching France's Bastille Day parade in Paris.  Ah, France - elegant perfume, intelligent movies, splendid urban architecture, high-speed rail - and this is the idea Trump wants to emulate?

There are other parts of the national Independence Day celebration in Washington that have nothing to do with Trump.  But this part is certain to grab all the headlines.  

Happy Fourth!

Independence Day 2017

Happy Fourth! :-) 

Happy Independence Day!