Beer? Hot Dogs? The usual. I'm not so rational that I will refuse a cold beer or some BBQ. And besides, there is nothing irrational about drinking a smooth cold one and eating some good food with neighbors and family. I honestly inhabit the best of all possible worlds.
We all remember celebrations from our youth. Picnics at parks, cookouts at neighbors or family. I remember being so excited about the fireworks every year, I would nearly be shaking with anticipation. No matter what small community we were in, there were always fireworks. Now many cities have to cut back and fireworks on the 4th are always the first to go. Most folks in most communities wouldn't know their neighbors if they ran into them with their shopping carts in the supermarket.
That was the main reason we decided to resurrect the tradition of the 4th of July Block Party that was once a part of our small neighborhood. It's easy, there are only about 100 homes here, and it's an older, established neighborhood. I will admit that last year I was so nervous and trying to make sure everything was good that I really missed out on visiting. This year I won't make that mistake.
Our country was founded by people, such as myself and my neighbors figuring we'd had enough of being taxed to death by people who were basically stealing our wealth to aggrandize their own lives overseas. I don't know what it is about America that makes us so fiercely independent, whether it's the air from the Rockies or something in the water, but we all yearn to breathe free here. Thomas Jefferson said so, you can look it up. But we knew that our strength depended on us banding together to fight the wrongs we recognized. It was very much a "you mess with my brother, you mess with me" type of thing that all Objectivists swear we never get caught up in. But we do. If we are to be completely honest, we do. But we do it in our own self-interest. We want to be free, and we want our brother/sister to be free as well. We don't DO it for THEM, we DO it for ourselves.
I am heartened to see more folks aligning themselves with the Tea Party values and questioning our law makers, regardless of which side of the aisle they park their fat asses. When they say "we must tax you" reply with a loud "WHAT FOR?" or a "WHY?" Do not back down until you get a rational answer. If they can't give you one, that is taxation without representation and that, my gentle reader, is wrong. That is tyranny and I will fight it to my dying breath.
So, remember why we fight on, even today, to free ourselves from an oppressive government hell bent on our destruction and eventually their own. Don't ever just accept the pat answer. Question. Question loudly, question until you get a real answer. Make them say it. Open up their eyes to exactly what it is they are calling for. Make them tear it all down so we can rebuild it in the image our country's founders intended.
And have a beer and some BBQ while you're at it. Happy Fourth of July to all of my readers.
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