Channeling George Bernard Shaw

I can smell the brats on the grill from here and can admire that superlative collection of star-spangled beer cans they had on special at the liquor store. What is it George Bernard Shaw once said, "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it." That guy is such a downer, amiright?

We're thisclose to Independence Day but I'm actually thinking, as a nation founded on the idea of fun, or what do you make of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" (thanks, Ben, and not just for the stove; and all this time I wondered Are Friends Electric? And will they now cost more because of rate hikes on the first?) when did we become Me-Firsters on everything? Yeah, we can take turns checking out at the grocery, merging into traffic, getting a hot dog at the ballgame, and you can start the line behind me.

We have become a nation of 'what's mine is mine, but what's yours is negotiable' even while we promise in the next few days to think about those whose service makes our way of life possible. At the risk of sounding less New Age and more like the relentless pragmatic curmudgeon that I am, I'd point out to sunshine patriots that those in the US Armed Forces will fight for their country (= you + me) but they will die for one another. 

'Liberty, Fraternity, Equality' were the watchwords of the French Revolution and despite the purest of intentions, that little episode went off the rails in rapid order. We, on these shores, were still such a young and fragile democracy. We were struggling with problems of our own and never became involved in a revolution that boasted it was modeled on ours. Somehow we knew mirrors were not windows and reflections were only true to themselves and not the originals. Good for us--better for everyone else.

I don't want to harsh your buzz as you buy ice for tomorrow's picnic or pick up the steaks for the grill for the afternoon barbecue or maybe oil up the glove for the softball game that's always part of the weekend's activities but maybe in the next three days, you can find the time to think about hundreds and hundreds of thousands in every uniform of every branch of our armed forces scattered around the globe many in places the rest of us have never heard of. Maybe, just maybe that will help us remember the pursuit of happiness is an essential freedom, but as with all freedoms, it comes with a cost. 
-bill kenny