So tomorrow is 4th of July. We can choose to dismiss it as a tribal ritual; we can give random thoughts to "The Land of Opportunity," "Coming to America," "Give Me Freedom of Give Me Death;" we can just eat hotdogs with friends and family. As an immigrant, I will do #2, and eat some hotdogs too. Also, I will refresh the LPSF website with information about a couple of dreadful issues that could end up on the November ballot, as affirmation that not all is well, but it is all up to us (We the People, that is).
Whatever your choice, even if you will be at work, as I will be, enjoy your day.
Marcy
Here is an essay from Anthony Gregory published last year for the Fourth of July which makes some excellent points about the history behind the holiday and contemporary American attitudes toward it:
Independence Day Propaganda
"Libertarians often insist Independence Day is really our holiday, which statists have no right to celebrate with a straight face. But perhaps this whole approach is misguided. Maybe the lovers of freedom should be the ones loath to bring out the fireworks.
"Surely, conservatives who cherish the Fourth of July while cheering today’s wars have a high tolerance for cognitive dissonance. The American Revolution was, at best, a revolt against empire. The taxes at issue were being used to finance Britain’s national security state. The colonial rebels didn’t "support the troops" – they resented them. And they resented Britain’s status as the hypocritical world power, which closely resembled the modern United States – an empire claiming the mantle of liberty while smashing its colonial subjects. Today’s conservatives would have likely been partisans of King George. In our own time, true independence would mean Washington, DC, releasing control of its satellites and colonies worldwide.
"We could also find it hilarious that Obama Democrats celebrate Independence Day, as though liberty of the old American sort has anything to do with their agenda. They have an implacable thirst for an expansive federal government whose depredations dwarf those of eighteenth-century England..."
Read the rest of the essay here:
http://lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory219.html
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))