Today we celebrate the brave men and women who fought for our freedom. I’m talking about Bill Pullman and Will Smith, who fought against an alien invasion back in the 90’s.
I’m no patriot. Being proud of something that I was simply born into doesn’t jive with me. Some will see this as a huge problem, but in my head, patriotism and religion are in the same camp. Typically, at birth you are taught a certain way, and that’s the right way and that’s that. It’s like playing an MMO and not being able to choose what faction or class you are a part of. Sorry dude, you are going to be the giant cow man. Here’s your pet warthog now go have fun. I can appreciate being born in the United States, but if I were born in Canada, Switzerland, or St. Vincent and the Grenadines, I would probably still be in the same predicament.
In fact, I’m increasingly skeptical, cynical even, of how great of a nation we are. Humans are generally great as individuals and in small groups, but once you mishmash them into a population things get pretty hairy. Sides form, and in our case, those different sides are growing increasingly extreme to the point where anyone halfway logical would be hard pressed to identify themselves as either shirts or skins. Then there’s the social issues – loudly correcting everything for everybody. We have to tip toe around everyone’s religious beliefs, everyone’s heritage, everyone’s bathroom preference, and still cater to both the masses and the rarities. I’m not complaining, I’m stating you literally have to do these things, but it’s damn near impossible with individuals. Plus there are the uneducated nitwits. Plus there are those with agendas pouring tainted information down the uneducated nitwit’s throat like it’s Sunny D. Ask ten people about a current event and you’ll get ten stories, and each will be embellished with some kind of slant.
If humans could get their collective acts together, we wouldn’t need to force patriotism. There are so many other achievements in history I’d rather celebrate then a bunch of colonists flipping the bird to the mother country. I get it, it’s significant. We wrote a letter and a lot of dudes signed it. Go team. What about the discovery of DNA, or the first moon landing, or a day where everyone sits down and reads a book?
I wasn’t going to go in this direction for today’s blog. I was going to share pictures from Independence Day and Firefly. Is it too late for that? Maybe just this one:
We’d be a better gorram nation if we had a second season of Firefly.
That’s all for now. I got a few hours of sun today and my body doesn’t know how to process it. Go eat some BBQ and drink your Mike’s Hard Lemonade and enjoy your freedom.
