My Revolution Can Beat Up Your Revolution

I apologize, in advance, for this rant.

Like most Americans, today's date brings my country to the forefront of my mind. Today is our primo national holiday. It trumps Veterans' Day. It beats Memorial Day hands down (as long as we aren't comparing Hollywood box office numbers, that is.) You see, two hundred and twenty-nine years ago, two of America’s founding fathers signed a proclamation severing ties with the English monarchy. Most of the document's signers actually added their signature on a later date. This proud declaration of the colonies' desired independence led to the Revolutionary War which begat Shae's Rebellion which showed the founding fathers that too much independence might be a bad thing. Thus, we received the Constitution which in our Founding Fathers' infinite wisdom limited the freedom of the American people and changed every man's right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to his (continuing emphasis on the gender) right to "life, liberty & property." It really is no wonder that we don't celebrate "Constitution Day." We were too busy fighting for a Bill of Rights to establish another holiday.

So what is it that we celebrate on the fourth day of the seven month? Despite my cynical introduction, it’s not just about John Hancock and Charles Thomson signing a piece of parchment and an overzealous bell ringer making one of our smallest national monuments. It’s not just a celebration of hamburgers, hotdogs, fireworks, softball games and Budweiser. It’s a day to celebrate everyone who has ever called themselves an American. It’s a day to celebrate an ideal; an ideal which the Declaration of Independence tried to establish and the American citizenry have been chasing ever since. The American ideal is a constantly changing, forever evolving, malleable concept that is unique to every person whom pursues it. It is to this ideal, this American Spirit, which we owe our patriotism, not just our elected officials, not only the soldiers, not even the very symbols we associate to that spirit. It is to the people that share in that American ideal that we owe our patriotism. It does not matter if they are fellow citizens or not, just as long as they share in our American Dream.

However, we must understand that patriotism does not equate blind obedience. Many of our "proudest" patriots confuse the two. They view our nation’s government as a sacred thing. They forget that the American government, like the American ideal, should be forever evolving, forever malleable to better serve the needs of the people. Too often, our government presupposes the opposite to be true; that the American people should adapt to the whims of their elected officials and their larger contributors. This belief does not originate solely from the arrogance of the politicians, history has shown an inherent willingness for the majority of Americans to accept the dictates of the government. This acceptance might stem from ignorance, from apathy, or even some blind faith that their officials will somehow provide them the American dream that have been pursuing. Whatever the reason, it is an affront to the ideal we should be celebrating as we watch our fireworks, eat our slain cattle and drink our domestic beer; as we continue to be good honest Americans as we search for happiness in our pursuit of property.

Anyway, what was I trying to say? Oh yeah, Happy Birthday America!

wojr  ¶ 4:05 PM