I'm working on the 4th of July. I don't mind. I'm getting some holiday pay. Most other people I know are working, so it's not like I'm missing "the big 4th of July cookout." I have a dog, so I'll be staying in tonight to ensure that he's not alone while a bunch of fake bombs go off.
In years past, sometimes I went out to see the fireworks and sometimes I didn't. When I lived in the city, I was usually able to see multiple fireworks shows from wherever my apartment was on any given year. When I was a child, I remember my mother taking me and my brother to the park to watch fireworks. That's pretty much all the 4th of July has meant to me. The fireworks show. I've seen plenty of fireworks by now.
Even as a kid, I never really understood what people meant by "love of country." America never seemed special, outside of its various "firsts" or "largests." Plenty of other places had democracy, and some of it even seemed to be doing it better. Plenty of other places had a similar standard of living, and plenty even had it better.
American History is plenty interesting, but I never really identified with the founding fathers. I was reading books like Lies My Teacher Told Me and Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee. I remember by middle school textbook having a painting of Crispus Attucks on the cover.
Crispus Attucks, a sailor of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry, died in Boston on March 5, 1770 after British soldiers fired two musket balls into his chest. His death and that of four other men at the hands of the 29th Regiment became known as the Boston Massacre. Death instantly transformed Attucks from an anonymous sailor into a martyr for a burgeoning revolutionary cause.
I'm no African-Indigenous sailor. As far as history goes though, I've always found it easier to imagine myself getting shot than leading the revolution. Someone else shoots you, someone else gets what they want out of it. You stay dead.
I recall mentioning to my grandfather that the Founding Fathers had owned slaves. "They never owned slaves!" he said. So, who knows?
All that to say: I'm not a patriot.
the last time i felt patriotic was when i was a child
I was six years old on 9/11/2001. I was living on the West Coast, so I had woken up to the news. I didn't really get the big deal at first, because there were always pictures of blown up buildings on the morning news. Pretty crazy that it happened to a famous landmark, but nothing too crazy.
It's not until I get to school that I discover it is, in fact, a big deal. All the other kids already have American flag pins. It was still the morning of 9/11, I still have no idea where everybody got flag pins from.
A few days later, sales for cheap patriotic-branded crap skyrocket.
Wal-Mart says it sold 450,000 American flags between Tuesday and Thursday, after selling only 26,000 during the same period last year.
Bluelight.com, Kmart's Web site, says its top-selling item is one introduced only last night: a T-shirt featuring the American flag and the words "United We Stand."
Buying stuff and not buying stuff is still one of the most favored forms of political expression to this day.
Anyways, I remember there being a lot of guys selling American flags and pinwheels and t-shirts and whatever else on the side of the road. I was in the backseat of my parents car when we passed one. I wanted an American flag to stick out of our car window. Everyone else had those. I wanted to be like everyone else, show we love America. Mom says no, it's a waste of money. Dad says come on, let's stop and buy a flag.
Big argument happens. I say stop the car, I'm gonna walk home on my home if you're not going to buy the flag. Dad joins me. Father and son united in defiance of the oppressive mother who won't cough up the necessary funds to buy a little plastic flag. We only make it a few feet out of the car before she relented. Victory secured.
Mom and dad purchase the car flag. No idea how much it costed us. I can only imagine the vendor purchased it from some sort of big-box store and then resold it at a high markup.
So that's what we did for our beloved country. We bought a flag. That's pretty much the only moment of real-deal patriotism I can ever recall expressing: a tempter tantrum at six years old.
When was the last time you expressed love for your country? To what end? I'd appreciate reader comments.
some links
Ed Zitron's The Shareholder Supremacy, on the roots of corporate America's obsession with shareholder value over actual productivity.
Kendall Hennessy's The Yawn, an animated short about a man who has a religious experience after hearing an underwater recording. Worth your five bucks.
Ludicity's I Will Fucking Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again, this post has been going viral for good reason. Really speaks to the current AI obsession.