Sinue_v2
Jul 3, 2007, 07:15 PM
... and for the first that I can remember, the fireworks seemed dim and lifeless. Before, I would watch them and feel a great swell of pride in the knowledge of what those explosions represented. Thunderous reports honoring those who died, or had their lives shattered out of love of this country, to create and preserve this union. I would look upon the colorful explosions and think back to the conditions upon which Francis Scott Key must have witnessed when he wrote in the war of 1812, what would later become our national anthem.
For the first time in 28 years, I look upon those fireworks and find that their color has dimmed. Their thunderous boom sounds hollow. They are a meaningless festival show, in which we stand around and pretend to act patriotic while our rights are, with our apathetic permission, being chipped away slowly - just as they have for many years, long before even my birth. The fourth of July is a commercial event, as meaningless as Christmas, totally alien to it's foundations as both a Christan celebration of Jesus's birth and as celebration of the winter soltice.
I don't know what's so different now... perhaps at least previous administrations hid it better, or put a better spin on it. Perhaps I just was too young up until this point to have it really sink in. These past eight years though have made me ashamed. Incompetent government who are ruled more by money than the people, illegal wars, unconstitutional detentions, lies, homeland security wiretapping, a moral right conservitive crusade against science and progress, prison camp tortures, a horrid educational system, the media circus which focuses more on tabloid stories than real news - and of course, the false threats of Terrorism, that has so many of my fellow Americans paralysed in fear rather than defiantly strong. Live free or die, eh? No thanks, I guess. I feel as thought the country we live in is being pulled out from under us, while we remain blissfully unaware, and all true meaning to those fireworks right along with them. Yet we ooh, and ahh anyhow just out of habit.
A bit early, but Happy fourth of July guys.
For the first time in 28 years, I look upon those fireworks and find that their color has dimmed. Their thunderous boom sounds hollow. They are a meaningless festival show, in which we stand around and pretend to act patriotic while our rights are, with our apathetic permission, being chipped away slowly - just as they have for many years, long before even my birth. The fourth of July is a commercial event, as meaningless as Christmas, totally alien to it's foundations as both a Christan celebration of Jesus's birth and as celebration of the winter soltice.
I don't know what's so different now... perhaps at least previous administrations hid it better, or put a better spin on it. Perhaps I just was too young up until this point to have it really sink in. These past eight years though have made me ashamed. Incompetent government who are ruled more by money than the people, illegal wars, unconstitutional detentions, lies, homeland security wiretapping, a moral right conservitive crusade against science and progress, prison camp tortures, a horrid educational system, the media circus which focuses more on tabloid stories than real news - and of course, the false threats of Terrorism, that has so many of my fellow Americans paralysed in fear rather than defiantly strong. Live free or die, eh? No thanks, I guess. I feel as thought the country we live in is being pulled out from under us, while we remain blissfully unaware, and all true meaning to those fireworks right along with them. Yet we ooh, and ahh anyhow just out of habit.
A bit early, but Happy fourth of July guys.