Enjoy Your Fourth

I Know I'll be Enjoying Mine

Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash

I swear to you that if I knew how to upload a video that I didn’t have to make myself, I’d have John Phillips Sousa playing right now. The Fourth of July is one of my favorite days of the year. You know, I have Disney Plus. I just might watch Hamilton over the weekend seeing as I’m not doing any travelling.

And yes, the Fourth of July is a good day for all Americans. I find it interesting that Whoopi Goldberg recently said that black people in America have it worse than the average Iranian. Why? Because she said it on national TV and hasn’t been arrested, tortured, or executed and that’s what would have happened to any TV personality who criticized the government of Iran live on their airwaves.

That’s not to say that the United States is a perfect country, because it’s not. Nothing created by human beings is, or ever will be, perfect. We’ve had problems in the past. We have problems now. We will have problems in the future. That is how the real world works and it always will be.

Anyone who tells you they can build the perfect society is either stupid or deceitful. Utopia exists only in heaven. If you don’t believe in heaven that is your right. It also means that your chance of ever being part of the perfect society is zero. But hey, if you’re an American you have the right to tell me I’m full of crap. Just don’t be surprised if I stick my tongue out at you afterward. I’m like that.

Warts and all, America is still the greatest country on Earth. Think about it this way: The US allows a million people a year to immigrate here legally. We get many more than that illegally. When was the last time you heard about a group of Americans lashing a bunch of gallon sized milk jugs together to make a raft to immigrate to Cuba illegally? How many complaints has the Mexican government had about Americans sneaking onto their side of the border in the middle of the night? It doesn’t happen.

Why? Because it’s not worth the time of an American to sneak across a border. Say what you want about the state of American healthcare. How many Americans have left their country headed for Britain and its vaunted National Health Service. I know of zero. The one person I ever met who had been treated by the NHS and loved it came home after he completed his fellowship and taught at an American university. (He was a pompous bag of wind too, but that’s beside the point.) For all his bragging about a free prescription, it wasn’t enough to keep him there.

And it’s weird because I’ve heard a lot of detractors say a lot of things that are demonstrably false. My favorite happened to be the son of penniless (legal) immigrants who was about to sign a multi-million dollar deal after being drafted by an NFL franchise. Right. If a few million dollars a year can’t give you the American Dream then you’d better have a good investment strategy. Of course, that few million will give you the money you need to invest…

I thought about doing a depressing “look how many people have died defending this country” post but, while those people certainly deserve the recognition, that’s not what the Fourth is for. We have Memorial Day for that and I’ve done a couple of those posts already. Independence Day is about the celebration. John Adams had this to say about it: "I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."

Of course, he was talking about July 2, 1776 when the Continental Congress voted to declare independence and not the Fourth of July which has nothing to do with anything. Seriously, historians have NO CLUE why we celebrate Independence Day on the Fourth. I’m not going to claim to either. If someone out there has a journal with their sacred ancestor’s thoughts on the matter and they were THERE for the first July 4 celebration, I’d like to read it though. So would a lot of other people. A lot of them work at the National Archives. What I’m saying is that if you’ve got your many-times great-grandfathers journal tucked away in your attic it might be a good time to read the thing. You never know what you might find.

So eat your burger or have a steak. Spend some time on the beach. Watch some fireworks. Watch a movie. Put your feet up. Do some fishing. Go on a hike. Or, I guess a “walk” if you have a problem calling it a hike in the city and that’s what you prefer. have a drink. Watch a parade. Give a big smile. Do you. But don’t just do you to do you. Do you because you can do you. You’re an American. Doing you is what that’s all about.

As far as what NOT to do on the Fourth, that’s easy, too. Don’t tell someone else they’re celebrating wrong. If you drank, don’t drive. I’ve seen some horrific wrecks on holidays. Actually, if you’ve got some good food that’s not traditional American fare and you’re local to Detroit don’t forget to call me. Don’t bow to any Earthly king. Speak your mind, and don’t worry if someone else is offended. Your rights start where their offense does. Don’t forget to show your American spirit with a flag or by singing a song. And, above all don’t forget how lucky you are to live in a country that people sneak into instead of out of.