As we near Boston and the sun comes out for a bit after three weeks of unseasonal rain, and the summer temperature ventures towards the 70s (global warming my ass), the question which sticks with me is whether today's Americans understand what they are have given up or will even miss the independence this day commemorates and which our nation was founded on. This Charger is the last gasp of that spirit, slapped down by what P. J. O'Rourke calls the "fun-killers" who hate what they can't control and have been working in the schools and courthouses to make independence and achievement and individuality dirty words and forbidden concepts. Maybe we should just give up Independence Day. There's nothing to celebrate when we've come to hold the values on which this nation was founded in so little regard. If you have given up the independence which once defined America, are you even entitled to celebrate Independence Day?
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ruvy
Interesting read, Dave. I though you might enjoy looking again at Dependence Day in Jerusalem, an article that expresses thoughts similar to yours here.
2 - Lumpy
Ooh grumpy.
3 - Dr Dreadful
Had a headful?
4 - Silas Kain
Dave, Dave, Dave. First of all if you're in Lexington at this very moment, you are within 8 miles of my home. I travel up and down the road which served as the route of Paul Revere's famous ride almost every day of the week. I walk through a Revolutionary War cemetery to get to my office. So, I understand the sentiment from which you are coming.
You say: There's nothing to celebrate when we've come to hold the values on which this nation was founded in so little regard.
You're absolutely right. I happened yesterday to talk to two sterwardesses who were in town. One of them asked me about the cemetery. I explained the historic significance of the area and even showed them they were dining on the same road of Paul Revere's ride. Do you know that NEITHER one of them even knew who Paul Revere was? I had to explain.
One of the ladies was born and bred in Charleston, South Carolina while the other Philadelphia. Imagine, both women were educated in historic cities which hold a major significance in our history. Yet neither knew Paul Revere.
If you have given up the independence which once defined America, are you even entitled to celebrate Independence Day?
Dave, if I recall, your kids have the precious gift of home schooling. It's not that our citizenry has given up on independence, it's that they've never been taught the sacrifices and meaning of the American experiment. Sure, it's glossed over in schools, but to what extent? Two bright young women who travel the skies of this nation every day didn't even know Paul Revere. So, how can they know and appreciate Independence Day?
5 - Dave Nalle
Dave, Dave, Dave. First of all if you're in Lexington at this very moment, you are within 8 miles of my home.
Damn, had I known I'd have invited you out for a drink, but it's too late now as we have to be up at 6am. I'll think good thoughts in your direction.
I travel up and down the road which served as the route of Paul Revere's famous ride almost every day of the week. I walk through a Revolutionary War cemetery to get to my office. So, I understand the sentiment from which you are coming.
I've actually been working on an article about Paul Revere -- historical and artistic rather than political.
You say: There's nothing to celebrate when we've come to hold the values on which this nation was founded in so little regard.
You're absolutely right. I happened yesterday to talk to two sterwardesses who were in town. One of them asked me about the cemetery. I explained the historic significance of the area and even showed them they were dining on the same road of Paul Revere's ride. Do you know that NEITHER one of them even knew who Paul Revere was? I had to explain.
Scary. I guess that in that job they only have high school educations, but even so they ought to have at least heard of Paul Revere. Too much to expect them to have memorized Longfellow in elementary school like some of us, but the name ought to at least ring a bell.
One of the ladies was born and bred in Charleston, South Carolina while the other Philadelphia. Imagine, both women were educated in historic cities which hold a major significance in our history. Yet neither knew Paul Revere.
I wonder if they'd have been better informed about the histories of their home towns. I hope so.
Dave, if I recall, your kids have the precious gift of home schooling.
Small private schools which the economy is making increasingly difficult for us to afford.
It's not that our citizenry has given up on independence, it's that they've never been taught the sacrifices and meaning of the American experiment. Sure, it's glossed over in schools, but to what extent? Two bright young women who travel the skies of this nation every day didn't even know Paul Revere. So, how can they know and appreciate Independence Day?
So you suggest that it's involuntary. Then we've failed as a society and we're teaching the wrong things in school. More sports, more shop classes, more civics and even more home economics might be the answer. But I know that there are also older people who should know better -- and yes I blame many of the boomers -- who are giving in and accepting a soft subservience to government because self-reliance and responsibility are too daunting.
We're soft and increasingly worthless as a people.
Dave
6 - Deano
Well, have a happy Fourth Dave (and family)!
I recently drove through that region, enroute to North Carolina and it drove me crazy having to slide past all the major sites for the Revolutionary and Civil Wars....
7 - Silas Kain
So you suggest that it's involuntary. Then we've failed as a society and we're teaching the wrong things in school.
Actually we have failed in education. Civics and accountability are subjects and policies that should be "religiously" taught from kindergarten. We do our young no favors when it comes to the education system today. If the public system can't do it, then we've got to find a way to make the private education system work and be accessible to any child who needs it.
More sports, more shop classes, more civics and even more home economics might be the answer.
Well, when I was a kid we had gym EVERY DAY. That's something that should be taught from kindergarten as well. Children need to be taught about their bodies, the engines within and what they can do to stay healthy. And, I am in FULL support of schools getting into weight control programs involving parents as well. A new health policy MUST include preventitive education and maintenance from day one of schooling.
But I know that there are also older people who should know better -- and yes I blame many of the boomers -- who are giving in and accepting a soft subservience to government because self-reliance and responsibility are too daunting.
Well said and I have no reply.
Have a safe trip, Dave!
8 - Arch Conservative
First of all Dave. Pennsylvania and Virginia aren't part of the northeast.
They're more mid-atlantic.
It's truly a shame that you had to spend the 4th in the People's Republic of Massachusetts where they hate like no other with a firey passion the things that actually made this country great.
My wife and I were going to attend a Tea Party in Boston but decided instead to spend the day in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
When you live in NH visiting MA is sort of like going to the proctologist. It's pretty unpleasant but generally necessary to do every so often.
Silas bemoans the two ladies from Charleston not knowing who Paul revere was but I'd venture to say most Massholes don't know who Stonewall Jackson or William Tecumseh Sherman are. And being from Texas I'd bet even ever fewer Massholes would have your understanding of who General Santa Anna was Dave.
What is most ironic is that those who once called Massachusetts home, John Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock have more in common with modern day Texans than modern day Massholes.
Cape Cod is overcrowded and overrated while the Seacoast of Maine is much more beautiful Dave. If you want to enjoy your visit to New England I'd suggest spending as much time in Maine as possibel and as little time in MA as possible. While Maine is a liberal state also they're not as arrogant and in your face as the Massholes.
In any event I hope your enjoy your little junta through our corner of the world.
9 - Cindy
Clav,
Definition clean up needed in the who was Paul Revere aisle.
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---P.S. all you Paul Revere fans do realize that it was because Longfellow wanted a hero for a poem that we remember Paul Revere's name. So, why weren't the other two fellows that road with him important? What were their names again?
10 - Silas Kain
William Dawes and Samuel Prescott were the other two riders. Indeed, Longfellow made Revere a "personality" along with the famous Paul Revere Bowl which is still reproduced today.
11 - Silas Kain
As I look toward my North I pondered why it is that such a plume of cold, frigid, heartless air was streaming into Massachusetts by way of the WHite Mountains. And, I look above, voila, the cold air is actually Arcon.
It's truly a shame that you had to spend the 4th in the People's Republic of Massachusetts where they hate like no other with a firey passion the things that actually made this country great.
Not entirely true. And, if you were to give credit where it is due, Arch, you would realize that were it not for this little patch of Massachusetts in which I reside, there may not have been a successful American Revolution.
My wife and I were going to attend a Tea Party in Boston but decided instead to spend the day in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
FOX News regrets your lack of participation in the Tea Party. Hope you're spending a lot of money on locally produced merchandise up there in the White Mountains.
When you live in NH visiting MA is sort of like going to the proctologist. It's pretty unpleasant but generally necessary to do every so often.
Unless, of course, you're into that sort of thing. And from what I hear Conservative hero Larry Craig takes delight in visiting his.
Silas bemoans the two ladies from Charleston not knowing who Paul revere was but I'd venture to say most Massholes don't know who Stonewall Jackson or William Tecumseh Sherman are. And being from Texas I'd bet even ever fewer Massholes would have your understanding of who General Santa Anna was Dave.
So witty. One of the ladies was not from Charleston, but that's what happens when one reads and comprehends only what one wants to read and glosses over the rest. And, as a direct descendant of one of the soldiers who fought in the Battle of Antietham, I have a little knowledge about Civil War military.
Piss and moan about "Massholes" all you want Arch. Just be man enough to admit that Massachusetts played a critical role in achieving that which you seem to celebrate. Ah, but in my experience "man enough" and "Far Right" are unable to coexist in the same universe.
12 - Arch Conservative
"Piss and moan about "Massholes" all you want Arch. Just be man enough to admit that Massachusetts played a critical role in achieving that which you seem to celebrate."
What does that even mean?
I was pissing and moaning about what MA has devolved into not trying to claim that it didn't play a role in the founding of this nation. Like I said Silas the people who inhabited MA back then would have a lot more in common today with Dave Nalle or your average Texan than you, Noam Chomsky, Ted Kennedy or your average Masshole.
13 - Dan(Miller)
Posted without comment.
Dan(Miller)
14 - Dave Nalle
To insert some sanity, it's hardly just about Massachusetts. It may be farther gone than some states, but I certainly see the same symptoms all around the country. The seduction of the nanny state is strong among people who have never learned to stand on their own two feet.
Dave
15 - Bliffle
Surprising that you would only heap contumely on the citizens of the USA, when it has been the (largely unregulated) corporations that are the biggest thieves of the public treasury when they feast at the Federal Teat. The "Nanny State" is nowhere more in evidence than in the uncritical government support of Big And Powerful Corporations, some of which are not even US corporations.
Over the past 50 years it is corporations that have oppressed people more than the flaccid attempts of any government administration, even that of Nixon and Bush, which one would have hoped to lead the charge in providing independence for their Subjects.
Bottom line: this article (and your chorus of neo-republicans) is nothing more than an attempt to make US citizens feel guilty for the crimes of their oppressors.
Of course, american citizens are ignorant, the better to form them into the standard interchangeable parts required by the drunken and voracious Corporations (with the connivance of the totally privatized US congress, Supreme Court, and the presidency: all bought and paid for).
16 - Clavos
bliffle must have been fired (unjustly in his mind, to be sure) by a large corporation or two.
If he talked like that around the workplace, it's no wonder -- the wonder is that his bosses merely fired him.
17 - Dave Nalle
Utter bullshit, Bliffle. Corporations aren't some sort of magical Voldemort-like entities lording it over all of us for nefarious purposes. Corporations are PEOPLE, just like the rest of us -- hell, their stockholders include the majority of us.
Corporations do what benefits their stockholders and their bottom line. There's nothing wrong with that.
The failing is in government in not acting to regulate corporations responsibly as a matter of policy and as the agent of the people and in further compounding that failure by responding to the results of their irresponsibility by putting further burdens on the people.
But as in any representative government, the buck doesn't stop with the president or some faceless bureaucrat, the buck stops with the people. We are ultimately responsible for putting a failed government in power and for both their inability to regulate responsibly and their greed and mendacity after the fact. You can't just duck out of it by blaming the big, bad corporations. That's just another way of avoiding responsibility.
Dave
18 - MarkSaleski
Utter bullshit, Bliffle....
yes dave, you're the expert.
i see we've moved from the whine course onto the cheese.
no thanks, i'll pass.
19 - roger nowosielski
It's good your voice still carries. I've just about given up with some folk.
20 - Cindy
Corporations do what benefits their stockholders and their bottom line. There's nothing wrong with that.
Nothing at all if you happen to be insane.
21 - Bliffle
Dave claims:
Corporations aren't some sort of magical Voldemort-like entities lording it over all of us for nefarious purposes. Corporations are PEOPLE, just like the rest of us -- hell, their stockholders include the majority of us.
A pretty picture of the Corporation as a sort of benevolent democracy, but false. Maybe 50 years ago some corps fit this description. But in the last 30 years this picture has changed radically, as eager and ambitious people have found that it's a lot easier (and takes much less time) to take over and loot an existing company than to build a successful company from scratch.
By making *money* (under constant self-justifying propaganda from corporations headed by such self-satisfied oafs) the only measure of success, we have enabled and justified all manner of depredations. Especially after the Corp has been freed of responsibility for such as causing peoples deaths and expropriating their property, and bribing public officials.
The agendas are set by the top officer corps, and the shareholder meetings administered by a PR agency. Shareholders have become sheep, fit only to be shorn. Just like voters.
Corporations do what benefits their stockholders and their bottom line.
Nonsense. Modern corps are managed to enrich their top officers. GM went broke because for the last 20 years or more they've been run that way, liquidating assets to buck up dividends not justified by their profits and shrinking market share. That guaranteed the stock price held long enough for execs to complete their vesting periods and liquidate.
The failing is in government in not acting to regulate corporations responsibly as a matter of policy and as the agent of the people and in further compounding that failure by responding to the results of their irresponsibility by putting further burdens on the people.
And legislators have done that under the constant bribery of big corps (masquerading as 'campaign contributions) as a quid pro quo. Both for expanding the unprecedented privileges of corps and for continuously shifting tax burden from corps to salaried individuals.
But as in any representative government, the buck doesn't stop with the president or some faceless bureaucrat, the buck stops with the people. We are ultimately responsible for putting a failed government in power and for both their inability to regulate responsibly and their greed and mendacity after the fact. You can't just duck out of it by blaming the big, bad corporations. That's just another way of avoiding responsibility.
OK, Dave. When are you going to take up the cudgels against the exploitation by Frankenstein Corporations? As near as I can see, you think that some magic transforms what would be a crime for an individual into just pursuit of a charter when vested in a corporation.
When are you going to come out swinging against the bribery of public officials?
When are you going to come out against the domination of BoDs by CEOS?
When are you going to start a crusade against monopoly and oligopoly power?
Instead of that, you seem to buy the corporate line that blames weenie citizens for not adequately protecting themselves from predatory corporations, just as some blame a raped woman for her weaknesses.
22 - Clavos
Shareholders have become sheep, fit only to be shorn. Just like voters.
Bleat, bleat, bleat.
23 - handyguy
Dave is a good writer, but this phony 'freedom is dying' [or 'freedom is atrophying'] line is getting tired.
Without, I believe, dropping the president's name, the article is, of course, another anti-Obama propaganda piece.
Neither the president, nor those who voted him into office, nor those of us who find him the most thoughtful, articulate, inspiring politician in decades -- none of those people are intentionally devaluing 'freedom' or trying to undermine it.
We all know by now that you believe the president's reaction to the economic emergency [a reaction that began last September if not before, under his predecessor] is wrongheaded. But many of the policies you decry are designed to be temporary, emergency measures. And universal health care has been a goal of many presidents for many decades.
Freedom from want; freedom from fear; and freedom from narrow, ideological definitions of freedom, all count for something too.
24 - Arch Conservative
How does the government enslaving us create freedom from want and freedom from fear handyguy?
25 - Bliffle
The only evident moves to enslave US citizens by the US government are those that are done on behalf of US corporations. Witness the current healthcare scheme where every citizen will be MANDATED to purchase health insurance. Thus, every American will be born indebted to corporate america, just like slaves 400 years ago were born owing the slavemasters for their room and board as infants, and even for their very birthing.