Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Fireworks Come in Many Varieties

Fireworks started early for us this year, when a line of thunderstorms rolled through about 11:15 tonight lighting up the skies and thundering forcefully for a time ... some heavy rain, a little wind, but mostly dramatic, breathtaking flashes and resounding rumbles ... A great way to usher in this sadly timed holiday tucked into the middle of a work week.

But sadder still is to contemplate the reason we celebrate this day, given the sorry current state of what remains of our "more perfect union," this republic where the rule of law theoretically supersedes the rule of tyrannical men. Each year we seek to commemorate and reaffirm our commitment to this tenet we're taught in our earliest years in school, when the day meant being proud to wave the flag, ride our bikes in town parades, eat home made ice cream and sweet corn, while biding our time until dusk when the fireworks could begin to light up the skies and thrill us with thunderous explosions.

As with most of our fonder childhood memories, time and circumstances ultimately tend to erode the thrill to little more than a fleeting feeling we seek to recapture, yet always unsuccessfully ... even in the best of times. And these are far from the best of times for this nation, when we find ourselves mired in two foreign wars and a full-blown constitutional crisis on the homefront.

Our great nation began with the overthrow of a tyrant. So as it was then, so must it be now again. Years of apathetic complacency, (much as Jefferson warned against early on), have nurtured an electorate poorly suited to carry on the great experiment envisioned by our Founding Fathers. And our outright apathy and laziness have begotten the situation in which we currently find ourselves depressed, overworked, uninsured, beaten down, and hanging on to whatever threads get us through each day. (And I'm sure you can surely enumerate all those possibilities with little effort yourselves....)

This nation entered a profound crisis in December of 2000, and though we still find ourselves deep in the darkest of times in my personal memory, we must nourish the hope that it will end justly, legally and peacefully. The rule of law over that of men must once again prevail in this great nation of ours, this now imperfect "union," so that we can begin to heal the wounds, the indignities, the illegalities and the outright dishonesty and dissembling that has characterized the last seven years.

Our founding document, the Constitution to which all public officials swear allegiance, must once again be respected and revered. It provides the remedy needed to set this great nation back on its track. Impeach. Convict. Remove. Brand those three words upon the consciousness of the citizens so that the healing process may finally begin.

Keith Olbermann said it much more eloquently than I could ever hope to do, so give him a few minutes of your time to appreciate what needs to happen and where we need to go as a nation.

I hope all of you reading have a restful holiday (since we get so many fewer than most countries in the world), and make the best of it as you can. Ironic, huh, that the fireworks we love and use to celebrate this Independence Day come from one of our major creditors, eh?

Have a happy 4th, my friends. Burgers, Brats and hot dogs for all!

Someone told me that was the American way ... let's do our best to bring it back!

6 comments:

olivia said...

Happy Fourth of July IVG and FM! Kewl pic up top.

Yes, KO's special comment last night was amazing ... When he started his 'I accuse you ...' list ... wow.

Family Man said...

Hi IVG and Olivia.

IVG I put a comment on yesterdays post, but it's gone now. Don't know if my computer is screwing up, or its all these comment programs. Anyway I said I agree yesterday.

FMom and I are having a very quiet 4th and that's just the way I want it. :)

Hope ya'll have a great 4th.

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hi there Olivia and FM, glad you stopped by! I'm trying to have a nice quiet day too, but some people are coming over for festivities later, so will have to try to find my gracious host hat somewhere, lol.

It's a hot one here today and the AC is not cooperating again, but it could be worse... at least we got that nice rain last night, which was a pleasant suprise! At least things aren't so dry now for the fireworks I hear whistling and exploding occasionally outside right now... did you guys like the garden theme in the pic? We're really fond of those Killer Bees b/c they look scary but are actually quite fun... they just whistle and shoot out sparks, kind of like a noisy fountain type thing.

FM, I'm not sure what's going on with the comment gods lately but I've had problems w/both haloscan and the blogger ones too (over at O's place) ... sometimes they work, other times they don't... who knows?

Larry Kollar said...

KO says it best, doesn't he?

The weed-eater doesn't want to stay running, so it looks like I won't be doing that this afternoon. Such a pity. :-P Guess I'll go pick some more berries instead. I should probably take a little snackie with me, that very good lunch I had at the new "bistro" in town didn't linger very long.

Nancy P said...

We do have a village, don't we? It's thundering in my part of town. Oh, wait, that may be bottle rockets.

And, yeah, let's take our country back, as both you and Howard Dean have said so well.

kansas

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hey there FAR and Nancy, glad to see you stopping by!

FAR, Boo hoo about the weed eater, that got you off the hook though, right? Nothing says slack like an uncooperative weed-eater, eh? Good for you! Hope you and Mrs. Fetched had a great day w/out TB around... I know that's been a stressor for you all lately. Hope you can breathe easier now and that he turns himself around, because he's got to be a good kid at heart w/parents like you two! Maybe he just needs time to come around to the reality based view us old farts cling to?

Glad to be part of your village Nancy, and hope you stop by more often ... my photos aren't on the par w/Olivia's, but we come from different perspectives ... I'm the documentarian and she's the artist! Once in a while I manage "art" but it's usually in spite of myself. Must reflect my more literary inclinations, but we do manage to mesh our interests well sometimes. If only flowers painted themselves in words, I'd probably do something impressive once in a while, lol.