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SINGLETON DRONES ON ABOUT MATTERS CULTURAL and/or SOCIAL and/or POLITICAL
A Retired Old Duffer's Blog Spot
A FOURTH OF JULY SCROOGE
July 4, 2008
Yes, you read the title correctly. When it comes to Independence Day, just call me Ebenezer Scrooge.
Don't get me wrong. I am not going to sit in my study and sulk all day. In fact, I am writing this early so I can go out with Jeannine and our good friend Bob to grab a quick bite and go to Brookfield Zoo where Jeannine can delight in the animals and Bob and I can try every setting, every lens, and every filter in our new Nikon digital SLR toy packets. If we have not exhausted ourselves by dusk, we may come back north to Evanston to see the fireworks along the lake front. (If I get any decent shots, I'll include a link to them at the end of next week's blog.)
If, at any point in the day, I hear a band playing the introduction to the Star Spangled Banner I will stand. I won't like it, mind you, but I will stand. I will not sing, I will not place a hand over my heart, I will stand because I value my life. I know that in this land of the free and home of the brave, there are those who would seek to deny my freedom of expression and would cowardly participate in mob violence if I did not stand.
Not to put too fine a point on it, I probably have the lowest patriotism quotient (PQ) one could find if Alfred Binet and the Stanford folk had turned their attention to nationolatry rather than intelligence. I have no idea where my disposition comes from. My mother and father were red, white and blue Americans, as are the vast majority of my extended family of origin. In my native homeland of Alabama I was surrounded by patriotism for both the USA and the late, lamented Confederate States of America. Like Cook Hand Luke, I always had good role models around, but I just couldn't get mhy head straight. Maybe it had something to do with my reaction to the injustice of a young Baptist minister incarcerated in a Birmingham jail back when I was 14. Maybe it had something to do with a Presbyterian minister named Robert Goodwin who throughout my teens opened my eyes to a world beyond the confines of my neighborhood, my state, and my nation.
No, I do not hate the United States of America. In fact, I'm quite fond of the place. I spend my entire adult life studying its culture, social structure, economic trends, intellectual currents, and political institutions from 1607 to the present. I simply do not idolize it. Try as I might, I can't see how flag waving is anything other than a direct violation of the ancient admonition, "You shall have no other Gods before me." Yes, that's right, my Scroogism when it comes to national holidays is deeply rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures that inform my Christian faith.
So if you see me standing during the National Anthem at Dawes Park in Evanston, IL, this evening, you will probably notice that my hand is not over my heart and my lips are not moving. I am, however, singing inside my head, and the song I am singing is one that I would ask you and everyone around the world to join me in:
This is My Song
"Finlandia" Music by Jean Sibelius (1899) / Words by Lloyd Stone (1934)
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