The Fourth of Yesterday

I am not very patriotic. I mean, I'm not very spirited in much of anything, so maybe it's not that I'm not patriotic. I'm just not as struck by any of it, as others seem to be. Maybe others are just interested in the chance to make a lot of noise, and shoot a bunch of pretty lights into the sky. But some are really into America, and how great it is, and how proud they are to be here. I don't feel any of that. I'm really glad to be here, because I have a lot of opportunity that others don't (or so America says, maybe it wouldn't be so bad other places, but America likes to talk itself up. After all, after we joined both World Wars, fighting was over within a year or a few. How can you argue with that?).

But I would have been just as "proud" of my country if I'd been born in France. Plus, I'd most likely know two languages, rather than one. And apparently people walk a lot in France, so I'd be a little healthier as well. The point is, I don't really see myself as American, or America as "my country." So I don't really see the point of this holiday. It's nice; I didn't have to work today. I saw family. My little cousin came around, all adorable, and made everybody laugh. We had fish, which I love and which we almost never have. It was a nice day. But I don't relate any of that with what today is supposed to mean. It was two hundred plus years ago. What exactly does any of it mean to me?

Maybe it's that I don't worry about the root. You know, the tree grows, it's a pretty tree, I like to climb the tree. Why think about how it got there? Can't we just appreciate the tree for what it is, and not what it came from? I'm about a quarter Indian, but I don't know any of my Indian relatives (they might be all dead...). Not that I don't care about Indians. I care about all people. But as long as I'm here, why worry about all of the different people who came together to ensure I got here?

It's interesting, sure. But imagine finding out that Hitler was your great grandfather (which I'm not sure was possible; did he ever even have kids? No one ever mentioned them...). Suddenly, everyone treats you differently, and you're not sure they shouldn't, because suddenly you're treating yourself differently. Why worry about any of that? I know that the brownie(s) I ate earlier are being digested by my internal organs right now (among other things). I don't really care how that's happening: only that I get to eat the brownie. Why does all of that peripheral stuff matter?

If the original Independence Day was 236 years ago, could we not move on and focus on something else? How about instead of dedicating an entire day to something that happened 236 years ago, we focus our energies on finding something new to celebrate, such as peace. Or the beginning of a self-reliant Iraq. Or a lowered unemployment rate. We can't get stuck in a past that had its own problems to solve. We have to start solving our own. And according to what I've been hearing, no one's really doing that. Instead we're all complaining. Maybe I'm an amateur, speaking on what I know nothing about. That's highly likely. But it seems to me that acting works a whole lot faster than talking.

Instead of giving you a video at the end of this entry, I'm going to leave you with the lyrics of Peace Has Broken Out by Shaun Groves. Look it up.

I woke up like every day before and read the news
It was there in black and white with all the what's and who's
A headline so hard to fathom it just might be true
It claimed on every thoroughfare and avenue

Peace has broken out
In every heart
In every house
Peace has broken out
It started small
It drew a crowd
Peace has broken out

Well, they say it all began right down on Fifth and Main
When somebody thought of pushing back but walked away
Somehow the people gathered round just weren't the same
And as the crowd dispersed somebody heard them say

Peace has broken out
In every heart
In every house
Peace has broken out
It started small
It drew a crowd
Peace has broken out

We'll watch the lambs and lions play
We've got no more flags to wave
All our rockets aim for stars
And the way things always should have been
Is just the way things are

No one's sure what happened next but on and on it went
From cubicles and classrooms to the president
Headed west and east and on to every continent
The whole world woke up to read how things are different
Since peace has broken out
In every heart
In every house
Peace has broken out
It started small
It drew a crowd
Peace has broken out

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