Last year I made a rather melancholy post about the fourth of July and America. I was hoping by this time this year things might have changed for the better. Well, they haven't, in fact, things might even be a little worse.
Here and there, bits and pieces of the bill of rights have been chipped away. From freedom of speech to freedom to bear arms - all over America there have been small instances when pieced together seem to add up to a greater loss of freedom. There have been scores of sour instances involving our soldiers in Iraq - senseless deaths and rapes of civilians, along with senseless deaths and injuries of our own soldiers. People call me unpatriotic for not agreeing with this war, and I call the same people unpatriotic for believing in this war. Right is wrong, wrong is right, it just depends how you are looking at it. I don't have the energy to have these senseless battles anymore. My simple wish is that people would stop dying in Iraq - whether they be Iraqis, Sunnis, Shiites, Americans, Brits, whoever.
We spent our fourth of July staring at computer problems (these pesky Dell laptops, serves us right for using one as our server), buying a host of wireless networking equipment (and not installing it yet), eating dinner at Applebee's (for an American holiday, you need an American restaurant), and watching the Germany/Italy match. I admit it, I really wanted Germany to win. Oh well.
I miss the fireworks
I miss seeing red, white and blue everywhere
I miss cookouts
I miss red,white, and blue ice cream
I miss blueberry pie (a family tradition for the holiday, apparently, blueberries are indigenous to the U.S. and I don't know if they grow them anywhere in Europe - they certainly don't grow them in Greece)
I miss friends, family, and the hope of the American dream
To all of you who get to participate in fourth of July festivities, enjoy it, embrace it, don't take it for granted. And I hope you have the most glorious and safe independence day.
4 comments:
Great post! You had me nodding my head through the whole thing.
I get blueberries in Germany...I haven't seen any yet and I don't see them for sale for more than a couple weeks but last year I got some really lovely ones grown in France.
I can't think any more about tonight's match. I get a lump in my throat.
........ZARDOZ SAYS:
BLUEBERRIES ,, wild in crete only donkeys eat ,and remnants of american cuisine pie lovers,, might pick ,,
and then the jesting starts from the locals ,,, because its not in their cuisine.
As for the rest ,, growing up
in the states ,, a mere child
, i used to think , watching the fireworks , that i live in a dream ,
by living in ILLINOIS ,, MOVING
on i discovered my dream stood
breathed and was fueled
in blood and tears
from the rest of the world ,,
anyways i still wish that dream
for the whole world ,, and only
the americans can change world history,, and the changing has to come from within ,,the dream ..
....WITHIN AMERICA.
also last night a greek t.v. station
had a movie about GEORGE WASHINGTON
and the crossing of the delaware river ,,valley forge winter ,,
and i almost became a second grader
again ,,listening and seeing history
with which i grew up,,
but then CNN came on again with
katrina,bush ,afganistan ,colombia
the new planet climate
and reality wiped the tear of my ambiguent childhood away..
im sorry to say.
AMERICA THE BALL IS IN YOUR COURT.
.........=ZARDOZ=............
I spent mine with a family of immigrant Albanians and a few other workmates from various other countries. It was extra nice to watch the fireworks and celebration through their eyes.
This post made me sad...I just wrote in my own blog about our fourth of July celebration! I wish I could have shared with you.
Sorry it's take me so long to check out your blog. I just found the addy in my classmates site today and realized I had never dropped in to read. I have two blogs- a yahoo 360 page which I began before Christmas and another at Myspace.com so let me know if you would like to check them out. -Dey
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