The older I get, the more I begin to resemble "the" Mr. Wilson. I can't say that's something I'm proud of. Le sigh. I feel a bit like Ebeneezer Scrooge to be honest, or perhaps The Grinch. Only instead of Christmas, my sourpussish mentality kicks into gear around Independence Day - slash - Fourth of July. I just don't get it. Perhaps one or several of you can help me out.
I of course understand the original intent of the holiday. Independence Day celebrates our independence. That's definitely worthy of a celebration. Or at least was worthy. It's a little difficult for me to get excited about an event that happened well over 200 years ago. Let's be honest, we all take our independence for granted these days. It's not like we need to gloat over the Brits or anything. We moved beyond that long ago.
Okay then, maybe the holiday is more about celebrating our freedoms. Rather than "Yay, we're free from the Brits!", perhaps I should think about the holiday in terms of "Yay, we're free!". Except we're not in so many ways. Freedomwise we're doing pretty dang well relative to most of the people on this Earth, and that's awesome; bravo to us. But there are plenty of exceptions. And let's not forget our track record over the past several decades of bringing freedom and the American Way to various spots around the world. Some will no doubt accuse me of being a glass half empty kind of guy. I prefer to think of myself as a guy with high, but attainable, standards.
Anyway, it's hard for me to see the connection between celebrating freedom and blowing stuff up. Particularly since we can only blow up certain things (there's a list) sold to us by certain people within a certain time range. There's some irony there. Do we really think freedom is best saluted by filling our air with thick, acrid, toxic smoke? By producing countless tons of paper, plastic, and chemical litter that gets strewn across our neighbors' yards and roofs? By filling our lakes and streams with the noxious runoff from all of this pyrotechnic bacchanalia? Perhaps a Tiny Tim among you can open my heart to the priceless joy that is Independence Day so that I, too, can see the point in all of this.
There's a lesson to be uncovered here, though I don't claim to be smart enough to fully comprehend it. Freedom, by its very nature, produces imperfect outcomes. Freedom is messy and offensive and obnoxious. The end result, metaphorically at least, looks an awful lot like the chaos we witnessed last night. It's enough to make a man stand up and scream "There oughtta be a law!". But as more of us do that we are eventually left with very little at all to celebrate. It's a conundrum.
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Don’t forget our fireworks are produced in dangerous factories by people who have very little freedom!
Sorry to be a contrarian, but I enjoy the 4th. It’s even more fun now that my kids are getting older. My neighborhood generally gets together at least one, if not two nights - we all grill and bring some food and spend the evening chatting before shooting some pyro.
The debris is plentiful, but no one gets so crazy that I fear for their personal finances. I would guess a handful of folks spent $50-75 and we had a fun time with no injuries or destruction.
A young man in our neighborhood is lucky to be alive and have his sight. Firework blew the bill right off his cap and missed his face and eyes by just that much.
As Grandma Ruby used to say…..
Everyone had a great time until someone gets hurt.
We celebrated by assembling peacefully at a friend
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