Thoughts Over the 4th of July

The Jefferson Memorial in
Washington, District of Columbia

    It was a different 4^th of July. 

There were fireworks, but only the kind shot off around the neighborhood.  Some folks like them and others complain and even over-complain about the noise.  The best complaint I saw this yeas was on Facebook where a person was standing up for the local birds and other animals who are traumatized, not surprisingly, by the harsh blasts.

We usually go to the parade in neighboring Lake Bluff.  It is full of antique cars, scouts, bands, and other community and school groups showing their civic pride.  Here is a video from Facebook of the our friend Audrey driving their vintage two seat Thunderbird in the parade in 2017.  It was a glorious day and an awesome car.  This year all such parades, programs, and community fireworks were cancelled.

We still had a great 4^th of July.  We had a picnicky meal of ribs, salad, fries, baked beans, and watermelon.  In preparing the ribs, I finally did what I knew I should have been doing all along.  I dialed the flames to the lowest setting and just kept brushing the ribs with barbecue sauce as I turned them.  They were really really good.

During the day, I thought about freedom and independence and what those word really mean.  Given all that is going on in this country, my thoughts were all over the place.

First, I thought about this pandemic.  I was disappointed to see that things have gotten worse in many places in the South and West.  We opened up too soon or not quite as prescribed, and the virus has spread again.   We have all seen the graphic of our national curve versus the European one and we look unorganized and a bit pathetic to the rest of the world.  I find that bothersome. 

Over the weekend, the Mexican state of Sonora closed the Mexico-Arizona border to non-essential travel to stem the spread of the disease.  On July 1, the EU began to allow some non-essential travel into the Union but… not from the US.  As my cousin Paula said about the travel ban into Mexico, “just let that sink in.”

Second, I thought about masks and the circus the anti-maskers have made it.  I am not sure what to make of it.  It seems you cannot argue with those determined not to wear a mask because "I have the freedom as Americans not to if Idon’t want to and you can't make me." Blah, blah, blah.  I suppose by the same logic, we should all have the freedom not to stop at red lights if we don’t want to.  The health threat from running red lights is more probable and the threat is certainly more visible.  Are some of us that medieval that if they can’t see the virus, it somehow doesn’t exist?

I thought about the restaurant and bar owners.  I feel for those businesses. Though, in all honesty, I am more sympathetic to those that are family owned versus corporate chains.  It is their very livelihoods.  I can see them wanting and needing to open and to do so at full rather than one-third to one-half capacity.   Also, there are folks who want the freedom to go to a bar or restaurant and be up close, happy, and social as before the pandemic, I understand and actually miss that myself.  In normal times, we took it for granted.  In these circumstances, I would also compare this "freedom" again to the freedom to run red lights. 

Then there is the whole statue issue.  People are toppling statues around the country.  I never understood why there should be statues honoring those who wanted to split the country in two and caused a great Civil War fought mainly over the issue of slavery (yeah, I know it was more complicated then that).  I always thought there was a fundamental rule in warfare; the losers don’t get any statues in the country that won or in lands that were conquered, annexed... you get the point.  When it comes down to tearing down the Jefferson Memorial or statues of George Washington, it is not so black and white for me.  I would consider cutting them a little slack since, in my view (yeah, I know, I am incapable of being able to judge anything in this regard), they did more good than bad.  Christopher Columbus?  Wasn’t he de-listed as a saint a couple of decades ago?  If it has not already happened, he will be omitted or colored in a darker light in the schoolbooks.  He does, however, still have a District, a country, and an Ivy League university named after him.  And what of Woodrow Wilson, a president beloved by most Armenians because he drew a map advocating for an independent Armenia that would have included most of Western Anatolia (a place we naively refer to as the Armenian Highlands).  His name came off of the school named for him at Princeton because he was a racist.  I did think about the statues, names of schools and military bases, and sport team mascots but, honestly, these things simply do not bother me all that much.  But, I do enjoy seeing folks butt heads over statues and the like on social media.

Lastly, as the 4th closed I watched a video and a film.  First, I watched a YouTube video, 1812 War - The Battle at Baltimore, from which Francis Scott Key (slave owner whose statue in Golden Gate Park was pulled down on June 16) penned The Star Spangled Banner.  The film?  Midway (2019).  It felt good to indulge in a little old-fashioned patriotism on our Independence Day.

Hoping for better days for everyone in this great country.