We are engaged in a war overseas. We are about to select a new Supreme Court Justice. Our country, despite its many faults remains the world leader across more categories than I can count. We are leading the world into the future. God help us. Happy Birthday USA! Jack
And even more important than THAT, July 4 is my 12th wedding anniversary! Nice of 'em to give us fireworks, don't you think?
Happy anniversary Nos! And happy 4th to everyone! Anyone in the Chicago area who would like a suggestion for where to go for fireworks (other than Grant Park on the 3rd, of course) might want to consider this: Get on your motorcycle (or in your car, if you don't have one... but a motorcycle's more fun) and ride(drive) to Evanston (or if you live in Evanston, walk out your front door and head Eastward) to that little park that I can't remember the name of, but is right on the lakefront. Park a few blocks away (since you can't park anywhere near the park unless you do so in the mid-afternoon). Walk down to the water's edge and to that breakwater thingy made of the really big rocks that juts out into the water. Walk (carefully) out onto the big rocks of said breakwater thingy as far as you dare, and have a seat, facing Northward. Then just wait for it. When it's over, walk really, really slowly back to your car, 'cause you're gonna' be there a while. Another thing that can be interesting/fun (but not all that fun... mostly just interesting) -- but only if you do it on a motorcycle and/or in a convertable -- is to get out on I-294 West of the city right around 9:30 or so at night on the 4th and head either North (technically West, toward Wisconsin) or South (technically East, toward Indiana) and just watch all the fireworks going off in all different directions as all those Western suburbs do their thing. Oh, yeah... and try not to crash into anyone. EDIT: Hey, there's an interesting way to make an interesting thread even more interesting. Everyone here (after they've wished Nos a happy anniversary, of course) should say what they think are the best fireworks (the kind worth driving a ways to get to) in their area so that readers in their area can maybe try it themselves. I've sort of started (above), and I want to add this: If you have the money (not just for the room, but to bribe the front desk guy because all rooms that I'm about to describe are booked years in advance), get a room facing the park in any of the big hotels which surround Grant Park (in Chicago) on the night of the 3rd, making sure that said room is at least 30 stories up. Take a boom box with you so you can listen to the Grant Park symphony playing the 1812 Overture live on the NPR station during the fireworks; and watch fireworks explode at or near eye level. It's very cool (and expensive).
Happy birthday, USA, indeed. What a place it has become, and is becoming. I've been worried in my life for the future of this great land, but never more than now. Our extreme right-winged, fear-mongering, lying president is about to appoint not one, but two supreme court justices (the first, to replce Justice O'Connor, who announced her resignation yesterday; and the second to replace Chief Justice Renquist, who will, no doubt, quit or retire before Bush43's presidency has expired); both of whom who will, no doubt, be so conservative that Antonin Scalia starts looking tame; and both of whom, alongside Scalia and others, will be making decisions -- including, most likely, the overturn of Roe v Wade -- with which someone like me, at my age, will likely be forced to live for the rest of my natural life. As the fireworks come to an end, wherever I end-up going to see them this year, I'm going to say this prayer: Dear Lord, Watch over us as we celebrate the anniversary of this great nation. Give us the the means to preserve and protect it from enemies both without and within; the courage to stop making enemies of our friends and allies; and the wisdom to know the difference. Disabuse our president and those around him of their misguided, "us versus them," end-times mentality; and help him to become someone and something bigger, better and more noble than even he believes he can be, touched, alas, by the better angels of his nature, as he makes decisions during the remainder of his presidency that will profoundly affect the lives and fortunes of untold generations to come. Give him a realization of the true intent of our founding fathers to find the kind of balance between church and state that will ensure uninterrupted civil liberty for all Americans; and will preserve the constitution's ability to soundly protect the rights of the few from the wants of the many, as was its stated purpose at its momentous creation. Though it is inevitable that our president will select two of his kind and sensibilities to the highest court of the land, guide him, nevertheless, to choose those who, perhaps unknown to him, will be of far fairer mind and goodness of heart than he might have realized or hoped; two who will, as Justice O'Connor did, allow themselves to be humbled by the sheer magnitude of their appointments, reminded of the life-altering and generation-spanning power of their deliberations, cognizant of the solemnity of their duty, and transformed by their realization of the greatness of their responsibility, from ruling based on petty party line politics or, worse, theocracy, to ruling based on the letter and spirit of the law in this great nation of laws, not people. And watch over our nation's brave military, at all times and in all places, as they courageously stand watch on the wall which separates us from those who wish us harm; and who ensure by their peaceful presence, as well as their willingness to fight, our continued ability to observe the anniversary of this nation's beginnings on days such as this. Keep them safe; make their sacrifices meaningful; steer them from bitterness for their knowledge of their president's deceit which placed them, unnecessarily, in harm's way and which asks of them that to which many of them did not agree; and bring them home, unharmed in mind, body and spirit, to their friends and families, as soon as possible. In your name we pray, this glorious Independence Day. Amen. I invite others -- who dare -- to pray it with me.
Happy auntieworsery to Nosborne and the missus! ---------- Do yourself and your country a favour: take an hour to read the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Make the day matter.
