7/4/99---An even MORE hollow 4th of July
Every July "we" have another day of celebration of our independence from England...supposedly remembering the sacrifices our forefathers made and the freedoms "we" as a nation gained. I say "we" very advisedly because its been many years since I included myself in this group. Actually, its been many years...at least 25...since I celebrated anything of the sort. The 4th of July lost its meanings for me long ago...I unlearned and relearned too much to believe in the patriotic slogans and ideological claims. If I remember anything this time of year its the hypocrisy we live as a nation...believing and mouthing one thing while existing in a reality quite different. So, to say that the 4th of July is hollow to me is a huge understatement.
But this year, 1999, it seems even more hollow than most. As I sit and write this, our country and its allies in NATO are mopping up after their criminal bombing of Yugoslavia...now calling themselves "peacekeepers." Our Congress has passed legislation that will permit the posting of the Ten Commandments in all public buildings...including schools...in clear violation of the Constitution and Supreme Court rulings concerning separation of church and state. In addition, that same Congress, specifically the House of Representatives, very recently tried to pass a resolution declaring for ALL of us...in the name of ALL of us...that we need God and should "return" to obedience and faith in God...even humiliating ourselves before this God. It failed to pass because it was sent to the House for a vote out of sequence and thus needed a 2/3 majority vote to pass. Although there were more votes in favor of this non-binding resolution than against, the 2/3 majority wasn't reached. But it will soon be reintroduced under regular House rules and only a simple majority will be needed...something the first vote had. It will be passed and although its still not a "law" per se...its a chilling thought to think our Congressmen are devoting their time to this kind of activity. It's passage will only encourage the religious right and other religionists in this country to press for more and more of their agenda, no matter how well-intended, probably with an eye towards laws which are binding on everyone.
What I'm getting at is that on this 4th of July our hypocrisy is showing even more than usual. We bombed a country and its people to "save" them...wrapping ourselves in the cloak of humanitarian ideals; we think that historically relative religious commandments represent the only or at least highest source of morality; and we are trying to force a religious and theist "belief" down the throats of an entire population...much like the kind certain people in the late 1700's tried to escape. This is freedom? This we should celebrate? Hardly. No, this is the next small step in an effort by some people to make this a theocracy! Lest my voice sound like a shrill paranoia, let me remind you that our "independence" (no matter how iffy it may really be) was not only a battle won to have freedom TO do certain things...it was also to gain a freedom FROM certain things...like theocratic rule!
Instead of seeing clearly our political and economic reasons for destroying a nation and its infrastructure (a criminal act according to international law), instead of trying to analyze the root and material reasons why we've become a "heartless" people, and instead of respecting the fact that many of us don't rely on a supernatural being for guidance in our lives, we hypocritically...and with a hollowness befitting the most propagandizing speech ever given...pretend we're really okay,,,the "good" guys...and honorable. We continue to accept the "illusion of doing something" for ACTUALLY doing something about the ills which trouble our nation and people...ills which arise out of the social relations between people in a capitalist economy and culture. We trumpet the same hollow patriotism (my country...right or wrong) and nationalism (I"m good because my group is good) we always have. We explode our fireworks and pretend all is right with America (except of course for the few "bad apples").
However, the hollowness causes a ringing in the ears of many of us. Put simply, I don't like this country anymore...haven't for some time, actually. I don't think I'm alone in this dislike, though. There are some who say it out loud like me. There are many, many who suffer their dislike and doubts in silence...going through the motions of everyday life and many others who even go through the motions of good patriotic "form." Then there are those who are so turned off or even marginalized by it all that they simply do nothing...except drink or something else than numbs their senses and intelligence.
The United States of America is not free and never has been. It's owned lock-stock-and-barrel by a very few who are not accountable to us at all...much less through the ballot box. We will never be free until we, individually and collectively, begin to think for ourselves and reunite our social, civil, and economic being into the "whole" of human...being. At the moment we're hypocrites, plain and simple. I'm tired of the pretending that our emptiness as a capitalist country is really "fullness" and can be merely (re)formed. I will continue to push for the indictment of NATO, the US, and the individual leaders of NATO countries as war criminals. I will not accept religious ideals which have never "caused" anyone to behave in any way to pass as analysis, and I will not accept someone else's religious ideals and beliefs as "truth" and to be equated with the views of an entire people...especially when I know better. I believe in freedom FROM...as well as TO...and there's lots of things to distance oneself FROM these days.
If you want to celebrate freedom...then I urge you to exercise freedom by thinking for yourself this 4th of July...and the 5th...and the....6th...and so on.
