Happy 5th of July! Living abroad, the fourth sort of passed and was gon. I had lots of facebook posts from American friends about fireworks and backyard BBQ’s, but it’s all good. I love the cookouts, but we’ll probably dine out of doors tonight, around a campfire, because we’re going to pick up the kids from their grandparents’, where they’ve been for a week, and that’s the way they do it up there. The fireworks are not that big a deal to me, I enjoy watching lights in the sky but I have become jaded. For small children it is a fascinating and amazing thing to see. For me, it’s like “eh, seen that before. Show me a triple rainbow, show me the aurora borealis, show me a UFO, show me something I’ve never seen before and can’t explain, then you’ve got my interest. One thing about the 4th I’m glad I’m well away from is the coast to coast blanket of flags, flag themed shirts, flag themed towels, flag themed swimwear, and sunglasses, and everything.
Every country has a flag. Most country’s leaders have used their flags to rally their people to hate people of other countries. In every country, the people most eager to wave the flag are the ones who understand the least about it.
Sure, there are a lot of things to be proud of. America began as a noble experiment. So did Soviet Russia. So did Athens. So did Liberia. Some noble experiments pan out better than others.
America, for hundreds of millions of people, has meant a chance to start a new life, a place which welcomed outsiders and where everybody had a chance. Now, America is a place where fat people waving flags yell at poor children from other countries on busses, who are already in a terrifying situation. Whatever your views on immigration law, yelling at kids is just mean. Cruel. I don’t like it that cruel people are waving that flag.
America has given the world jazz, blues, rock and roll, country, and gospel music. America is Hollywood. America is where the internet took root. America is the land of Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, William Saroyan, Jack London, Jack Kerouac, Tom Robbins, and Dr. Seuss. Although many other countries have fine literary traditions as well, I think we’ve got them all beat as far as the sheer volume of words on paper.
And yet, lots of Americans are nearly illiterate. Just look at the shit they post on facebook.
It’s inevitable, really. Americans are people, people from all over the world. There are stupid people everywhere. There are racist people everywhere. Many of them made their way to America. In search of a better life.
That’s my blog for today. Be back Sunday night.
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