Have a great holiday. Let the foreign ankle-biters yip and yap. Let the domestic fault-finders exercise their first amendment rights to whinge and wheeze. I think the American project is still worth celebrating with pyrotechnics and unhealthy food.
Have a great holiday. Let the foreign ankle-biters yip and yap. Let the domestic fault-finders exercise their first amendment rights to whinge and wheeze. I think the American project is still worth celebrating with pyrotechnics and unhealthy food.
I attended a moving naturalization ceremony this morning. Despite our fractures and failings as a country, 140 people chose to become US citizens today.
Had someone say to me today there is no reason today to celebrate this country.
Then checked and 6 people were killed in 4th of July parade in Chicago. Gun laws are out of whack, corrupt politicians like trump are allowed to defy our laws and try a coup and still not prosecuted. republicans are not watching the hearings because they don't want to hear what is happening. Rights are being rolled back that have been in place for more than 50 years with evidence of more to come.
Yeah, makes me not want to celebrate either. What American project?.... turn it into an authoritarian regime?
Yea turn it into a far right-wing undemocratic regime. If this country had a drug of choice, it would be steroids. I don't feel like celebrating either. I mean if one spends time with people during the 3 day weekend, that's no crime, nor is eating with people ... or alone ha (there's a limit to how much unhealthy food I ever eat though, a few moderately unhealthy treats within limits, but eating junk really only hurts you). But regarding it as celebrating this country now, hard pass on that one.Originally Posted by frugal-one
Trees don't grow on money
And yet...so many people from much worse places would love to be here and die trying. I am an optimist but without some really good leadership it will be hard to turn the ship around in so many matters.
For myself, I have to say I love this country warts and all. I sort of pity the souls who can only see warts.
A dear friend of mine was naturalized today. He grew up in Serbia during The Sorta Recent Unpleasantness, and to him, America is a paradise. Perspective is everything.
The parade shooting happened in Highland Park, IL. Pretty rich, pretty white, large Jewish population, very liberal, suburb of Chicago. Affluent North Shore area. Town actually has their own AWB, which should give you an idea.
I think I would have made a great Canadian, but the stork landed a few hundred miles too short.
Still, I've read a lot about the history of the US, I've read the constitution, visited the founding buildings and many major battle sites, talked to people not from the US about the US and visited other countries and talked to locals about the US. My favorite anecdote: in Uruguay, my friend who was born there introduced me to friends of his as "this is my friend Ed, here's from the United States, and he doesn't own a cowboy hat." This was more than half of the time met with a gasp of amazement. Though the opinions I've heard about the US in other countries haven't always been the most congratulatory, people always treated me well and with respect.
What's the point? I'm not really sure myself. I have a lot of stake in the future of this country and currently have a lot of mixed feelings about it and its people. It was a bold, and in many ways revolutionary and liberating, experiment in government. I hope we're not letting it go astray.
That quote from Ben Franklin following the Constitutional Convention has rung in my head today: "This Constitution…can only end in despotism…when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other."
Despite that, I still feel a reason to celebrate, if cautiously and quietly. Some tiny little spurt of hope remains, despite all of the noise that continually attempts to drown it out.
I guess we'll see.
And I pity those who listen and believe all the lies the past administration (and their current ilk) spew. Pity the sheep.
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