Poor But Proud

--The End, Ed Ruscha

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
--The Star Spangled Banner

I believe that (US independence) will be celebrated
by succeeding generations
as the great anniversary festival...
it ought to be celebrated by pomp and parade,
with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires
and illuminations {fireworks}
from one end of this continent to the other...
--John Adams
_____________________

The lede from the LA Times story: "Nearly 50 cash-strapped cities nationwide are forgoing fireworks festivities, choosing instead to retain jobs or, in the case of Montebello, give the money to food banks" (Struggling Cities Cancel Fourth of July Fireworks.) Ranger's parent's town of Euclid, OH, is one of those; Akron and Cincinnati are others. Perhaps your town is one of them.

Thinking of Euclid's cancellation, this is a fine welcome home for my father, who is returning from his WW II Navy Reunion in Chicago (another city that shall have no fireworks due to budget shortfalls for the 2nd year running -- our President's district, how sad is that?) For all the men and women who have fought for this great nation, one must wonder what they think about the sorry state of affairs in the country for which they risked life and limb.

America has held fireworks displays celebrating its nationhood since 1777, but the torch has been passed to new generation of America. It's no surprise that Flint, Michigan, will have no celebration, but surprising is Tucson, Arizona, which will have a show but only because the Pascua Yaqui Tribe donated $20,000 to subsidize the fireworks. You know the U.S. is hard up when a town gets a bailout from a Native American reservation.

You may say no fireworks is the least of it, but you know what it means. We lack the funds for festive, celebratory fireworks, but we keep on keepin' on to the tune of $10 Billion a month in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, and every other sandbox nation. Does this seem strange to anyone else?

Of course, we don't need to keep on truckin' over there. Henry Kissinger stated the end game concisely: "In campaigns like this the anti-terror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing." We'll figure it out one of these days -- sometimes it takes almost a decade to wake up; sometimes, longer.

Ranger suggests a cease-fire and the Hellfires and loosing the bottle rockets here in the Heartland.


--Jim and Lisa