Happy Birthday United States of America

[Snowhog]

Yes, two days late, but...

For all our American members, I sincerely hope your July 4th celebrations were incident free and fun! Here, the weather held; wasn't totally sunny on the 4th, but it didn't rain. That didn't happen until early yesterday evening, with a really strong storm front passing through The Twin Cities area. Lots of heavy rain and winds; lightening and thunder, and in at least some areas, hail. We lost power around 6:30 PM yestday (the 5th) and it didn't get restored until about 3:30 AM this morning.

[GreyGeek]

My wife and I used to walk to Oak Park every 4th to see the city fireworks show because we lived only four or five blocks away. The city show started just at sundown and lasted about 30 minutes. The walk back home was even more interesting. There were so many people setting off fireworks that the explosions and lights were almost continuous from 9PM to midnight. Blackpowder smoke filled the air and was so thick you couldn't see more than 200 feet in front of you. Our two poodles were terrified and we had to give them sedatives every forth so they would sleep through the night. In the days before the 4th, when it was legal to set off fireworks, the occasional BANG! would send them running under the bed, trembling like leaves.

After we sold the house and moved into our apt we wondered what it would be like. About the same, except that we got a better view from from our 2nd story patio. A neighbor just south of us was setting off fireworks from 9PM till midnight almost continuously. Yesterday morning they had three 50 gallon trash cans full of spent firework debris, and a pile of boxes, tubes, launchers and assorted relics of fireworks that was about three feet high, four feet wide and about five or six feet long. Some of their launcher tubes were 4 inches in diameter and about 2 feet long. It had to be about $2,000 to $3,000 worth of fireworks. On half mile drive over to my son's house to pick up my grandson I counted at least a dozen piles that big.

To bad so many Americans are so ignorant of what the 4th is really about.

[MoonRise]

Yeah, that was sad, at least they showed a few at the end that had a brain enough to know!

[jlittle]

Of course, as an outsider, I see the standard answers as nation building myth. Liberty, independence, and similar can be called fancy justifications for a tax revolt.

[GreyGeek]

Calling our the reason for our break with England a myth is mere sophistry which denies historical fact. It is common these days to "deconstruct" history in order to justify current political fads. Tell me you would be glad to do without any of the freedoms our Bill Of Rights guarantees. Shouldn't be hard to do if they are merely myths.

[MoonRise]

It is common these days to "deconstruct" history in order to justify current political fads

True. One has to take it in the events/societal norms during that period.

[jlittle]

Calling our the reason for our break with England a myth is mere sophistry which denies historical fact.

Saying "myth" doesn't necessarily imply false; that idea seems not useful. But appealing to "historical fact" on something you and your people have been so extensively trained and propagandized (to avoid more pejorative terms) is... unconvincing, to say the least. "History" is always written by someone. The label "myth" just indicates that the stories a people tell have become indistinguishable from others commonly called myths.

"deconstruct"

But one form of bring attempting objectivity, there are others.

Tell me you would be glad to do without any of the freedoms our Bill Of Rights guarantees.

While you could say the revolution led eventually to those, I was referring to the 4th of July.

Regards, John Little