The 4th of July weekend is just around the corner. I like the 4th, I like picnics, softball games, watermelon, swimming, and of course fireworks. When it comes to the fireworks I like the deep booming kind, the ones that make you listen to see if your heart has stopped beating, and you can’t really tell. Then another boom startles you back to life like you were just energized with a defibrillator. Second to the fireworks for me is the music, a classic march, a county’s patriotic twang, the cry of a folk song, or a rocker’s protest all seem apropos.
For us Thanksgiving, Christmas, and even Easter are family and church “family” events, we dine at our tables that have limited seating, we share gifts mostly with our own and those closest to us. Even some Easter egg hunts have become private parties. The 4th of July events seem to bring entire communities together. Soldiers, farmers, business men, black, white, or somewhere in-between all seem to be brought together in this national day of remembering our independence. Tea, Sweet tea, Pepsi, Coke, Bud, or Miller drinkers all enjoy the 4th together without so much as a second thought. In my neighborhood Hispanic, Catholic, White, Protestant, Mormon, preacher, sinners, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents will celebrate together.
Could this community spirit we see celebrated on the 4th be caused by the fact we celebrate outside? It’s hard to exclude the neighbor’s pre-teen son from your front yard fireworks celebration, who last week soaked your cat. Seating is limited only by the amount of grass available, extra food for that unexpected guest is as simple as another package of hotdogs.
Thomas Jefferson penned it thus “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”
Think there is a hint of Susa’s proud patriotic marches, a twang from Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”, a cry of Peter Paul and Mary’s “No Easy Walk to Freedom”, and the sound of Paul McCartney’s “Freedom” in those words.
This year there is a county wide burn ban that will prevent me from shooting off fireworks or watching others. No firework induced heart attack this year. However, the watermelon will be cold, the hotdogs spicy, there are plenty of seats on the lawn, if you want sweet tea you’ll have to bring your own…
Caution the music will be loud and proud.
David
