Rob had to remind me what day it was this morning. I had completely forgotten that today was the fourth. Not that I have become so Canadian in my short tenure here but mainly because I tend to lose track of the days when I am not working. If it weren’t for steady employment over the years, I wouldn’t have been aware of the month, day of the week or even the specific time of day. These are artifices created for the good of businesses  and religions for the most part, I think. 

I haven’t kept up much with the news of late. I know that the ’08 presidential election candidates continue to plague Iowa with their presence and that Hilary now feels secure enough in her manhood to fetch her husband out of the kitchen to join her on the campaign trail. Scooter was predictably pardoned by the President. Enraged liberals bemoaned this latest blow to the constitution at the hands of the current administration, but The Founders wouldn’t have been a bit surprised. They did the best the could at the time but the system they created was, and continues to be, a work in progress. Some generations work harder at improving it than others is all. The boomers are not proving to be hard-workers, at least not for the people, but they have always been a fairly short-sighted and selfish lot. 

People are still dying in Iraq but since it is mainly Iraqis, no one cares much or at least not enough to ask the hard questions and take to the streets when they don’t get answered. Oh, that was a boomer thing, wasn’t it. I guess they can’t take to the streets to protest themselves out of office, can they?

Michael Moore’s latest pseudo-documentary on the secret shame of health care in America is in the theaters. Day late and a dollar short. No one is truly ignorant of the inequities of the system. Those without know the reality too well, and those with enough health care at present are like the people in that story who stand silent as all their neighbors are hauled away because they rationalize that as long as it’s not me, it’s okay. 

Fat people are taking over the country even as  the people who design the clothes they wear try to shame them into slimming down with all sorts of fashions that accentuate their gelatinous bellies and rubbing thighs. The fat know that they are the true inheritors of the earth simply because they are willing to eat more of it and off it, despite the chemicals it contains (and the fact that when they are finally stricken with fat-related diseases their combined weights will crush the health care system for good.)

The U.S. is still not well liked by other countries. They see us as loud, arrogant, hedonistic and stupid. Even Canadians are none too fond of us and given their natural bent towards politeness, this should concern us. If the most easy-going kid on the block thinks you are an asshole, then maybe you really are.

What would the founding fathers think if they could see their country at 230 years of age? Would they be impressed or horrified? I guess that would depend on the individual founder. They were very different men with ideas and ideals that didn’t always match up. They fought, dirty sometimes, and they schemed, dreamed and committed treason against their own government for the independence to build a completely new one. They weren’t saints, so it stands to reason that the country they created would not be a haven for saintly people.  I imagine they would think that there is a lot of room for improvement, but then there always was. 

The fathers created a democracy that flew against the conforming natures of most human beings and for some reason, it worked. Not perfectly then and not perfectly now, but that’s okay. Have yourself a Happy  little Fourth of July.