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Reflections on July 4th of the Past
A Boomer’s Journal
By Tom Anselm
Can you believe it is nearly the middle of summer? Yeah, I know the official date of that season is June 20, but who’s counting. Our nation’s 236th birthday party is coming up, and that means… well, my guess is it means different things to different people.
To our family, at least since 1980, it has meant the celebration of our son Joe’s birth. Why we called him Knucklehead in those early days I don’t remember, but Knucks he was, and we had a huge party by our standards on his Number One Birthday.
He had been sick, so sick he was hospitalized with an IV centered in the top of his head so he wouldn’t see it and pull it out and could get the medicine he needed to fight what was called hemophillus influenza. It was touch and go for a few nights, with a crash cart parked outside his door, and Jill and I taking turns sleeping on a mattress in his room next to his crib.
So when Year One came along, we had a “big ole bash.” I went to Bill Murphy’s Sporting Goods in Bissell Hills Plaza for red tee shirts with a white number “1” and each of the four kids’ (at the time!) names on the back in blue. Or maybe it was blue numbers and white names… anyway, it was a great time with more than a few reasons to cherish the day.
For others, namely newly-citizened immigrants, it is a day of joy and relief at becoming one with the best place to live on the globe. Or a precious welcome home to a military person who has been gone for far too long. It also means burnt pork steaks and sunburn shoulders, flag-waving parades and the flashing of fireworks. For years, Joey thought the big-boom displays were all for his big day. And who’s to say it wasn’t?
Alongside all this, I treasure the great good fortune of birthright. What a blessing to be an American! Sure, we have our problems as a country. People grouse about how bad the politics is these days, with the two major parties so rancorous in approach. But history tells us that, really, it has always been thus. There were times when there were at least three strong political parties, and the campaigns were so nasty and personal that they make today’s disagreements sound like a church sermon.
I look at the fact that we can disagree without fighting in the streets as a good thing. Oh, wait, there was a bit of skirmishing recently, with the Occupiers taking up against “The 1%”, but not like you see in Syria and other supposedly-civilized nations. And we have a democratic republic whereby each and every vote does count toward electing a representative to administer government.
Of course it isn’t perfect, but it sure beats dictatorship and anarchy. At this July 4th date, we are less than a half-year before what could prove to be a very historic presidential election. Will the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue be able to keep his job, or will a new guy be backing up his moving van come January?
All I know is that I am grateful for the opportunity to freely express my opinion, to freely cast my vote for the guy who I think will do the best job, and not have to worry about a military coup being the way we change our leadership. So, sing along with me as I say, “I’m proud to be an American”, and “God Bless the USA.”
