Independence Day
The 4th of July was one of my favorite holidays when I was growing up in Minnesota. It was during the mid-1950’s and the kids in the neighborhood would borrow military items from their fathers and hold a parade each year. It was not much of a parade but Alan had a drum that he would "play", Sharon had a clarinet and Doug played a trumpet. The rest of us would just march behind them and one of the kids got to lead the parade with an American flag. We would just go around the block once or twice and the parents would stand on the curb and cheer as we passed by. In the evening, all the families would come to Ken’s backyard and we would have a neighborhood picnic that every family would bring their favorite things to share with each other. Later that night, after dark, we would all gather in the yard by Alan’s driveway and his father, Wendell, would shoot off fireworks that all the neighbors contributed to the fund to buy. No one ever got hurt by the fireworks and no fires were ever started by our fireworks. Well, that was the 1950’s in Minnesota and not 2005.Independence Day, 2005, is very different from those days in Minnesota. We are at war with Iraq and Afghanistan (or should I say with terrorism). Just too bad that Iraq and Afghanistan got in the way of terrorism so we had to bomb both countries back to the Stone Age. Tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanistanians have been killed by our attempt to give them freedom and democracy – even if they did not know they wanted freedom and democracy. Over 1,750 American troops have been killed in these countries that hate America more than they did when the war started. The USA is bogged in a quagmire that is just like Vietnam in the 1970’s. George W. (Weasel) Bush will not fix a timetable for withdrawing American forces even though the majority of American feel it was a mistake to invade Iraq when the war on terrorism should be focused on Osama bin Laden. Iraq was invaded because of phony intelligence cooked up to look like there were "weapons of mass destruction" and that Sadaam had ties to terrorists of Al Queda.
When my family goes to see fireworks at the Washington Monument grounds tonight, we will have to pass through metal detectors and be subject to body search for weapons. The show will be spectacular with fireworks accompanied by the Washington Symphony. Afterwards, there will be drill to see how quickly people can be moved from downtown in the case of attack. Wow, what a super end to a patriotic 4th of July.
Am I alone in wishing for Independence Days like those of the 1950’s in Minnesota?
posted by Ex-Fed @ 9:38 AM
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