The Anthem of Independence : The Glorious Fourth of July
by Liv | Published on July 4th, 2009, 3:06 pm | Life
I wrote about the Fourth of July last year. Unknown to me at the time, what I would write then would still hold true for us today. While the President has changed, and perhaps our outlook on the future has prospered, the reality of America's state of mind and its predicament remains firmly footed in delusion. We are a country who wants to believe in things like "The American Dream", "Freedom", "Liberty"... even "Independence", but are we really any of those ideals we celebrate? However, this post isn't about that; it's about how we celebrate those things, and to put it mildly some of us are rather bad at it.
I first have to wonder how many people even know what we celebrate on the Fourth Of July. It struck me so odd as I broke in to dance with my daughter in my arms last night that several people were uncomfortable by my outward expression of enthusiasm for the fireworks and their music in Burlington. If you ask me, the town has some serious issues with dancing being taboo. (Footloose?) There was no beer, no dancing, barely anyone was smiling. The comments we heard as we left were that the fireworks and the event was a bore, and that the 45 minutes people sat in lawn chairs and picnic benches was summed up in the words of the guy with the John Deere hat last night who sounded a bit like 'Mater" on 'Cars'- "Shooootttt!!!! I've seen more explosings out of the back of my pick'mup truck!!!"
Now I've been to Greensboro's Fun Fourth in the past before too. They're certainly better than Burlington, but definitely don't hold a candle to Santa Barbara, or Monterey. I mean, I've been to the Fourth Of July in more places then I can count. Some have been rather splendid, some rather horrible. They generally all involve a rendition of Lee Greewood's "God Bless the USA" while some rather drunk redneck (except Burlington) howls in between the chorus, some soldier guy takes his hat off turns to a flag and salutes, and some mom looks on clutching their child. The fireworks explode and if you're lucky then someone will start singing along; lighter in hand overhead, in a drunk serenade leading others to join into a mass choir of the few lines of the song that everyone partially remembers and then mumbling the rest of the lyrics -"Mummble, mumble... God Bless the USA!!!... Mumble, Mumble..."
Wow if only in 233 years ago, the soldiers could see a youtube video of "this picture" and what ultimately they were fighting for.
In contrast I was recently able to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day in London. (Oh no, here she goes again.) Which of course is the best we're going to get in this comparison, because as I'm aware of... Brits don't celebrate American's Independence (though rumors were during the Bush administration they were slightly relieved to be relinquished of their connections). Let's compare and contrast...
Burlington (circa 2008): One Guy dancing:
London Saint Paddy's 2009:
...and they're celebrating beer, food, and (historically) church... God forbid we'd as Americans should want to celebrate being a free country, independent of monarchical rule? If you think the fourth is fun, wait till Christmas when we all pretend to like one another and give each other gifts we wouldn't buy for ourselves.
I suppose that's the problem, Americans today never had to fight for anything. We throw around phrases like "land of the free" yet can't even drink in our parks on Independence Day. (The Irish would smack your mom for that.) We say "Greatest country on Earth" while your unemployed-self spent the day eating chopped up cow bits whose former incarnation spent their life grazing in manure. We seem ungrateful, we seem unpatriotic, at least to me- that we don't get out there drunk as a skunk, dancing barely clothed and say for just one last time, "It's great to be alive", "It's great to be American!"
...But Americans don't because they've never risked anything. We refuse to get a long, "it's my way or no way", "I want my hummer and my water bottle too!"
Our independence day shouldn't be a celebration from some country called "England", it should be from ourselves, from that little voice inside that says "God doesn't want you dance", "don't drink it's a sin", "I'm an adult, I have to act like one", "grown-ups don't dance","Schwarzenegger has a Hummer I want one too!", "I could never ride the bus, that's what poor people do.", "I don't want to try something new, I'm happy with the way things are."
The real Independence day, the one you'll dance, perhaps even cry over when you find it... is when you stop listening to what everyone else tells you that you should be like.... and really are free, and live a life not influenced by corporations, religions, or politics. To be an individual, to be.... for a better lack of the words... "independent".
