Happy 4th of July
I’ve long had a love
affair with the US and I consider it my spiritual home if you will. Allow me to
indulge in some ramblings to try and explain some recent realisations of mine
(hopefully at least to myself)
I did have the chance to take in some of the country in 2003 and I enjoyed every
second of it. Well ok, the 10 days I couldn’t eat because of some virus I picked
up somewhere along the road were less than pleasant but apart from that, I had
the time of my life, and it confirmed a lot of what I suspected.
From the elderly Dutch-American couple who thanked me for my country’s
assistance in Afghanistan and Iraq while we were having lunch at the San Diego
Zoo, to the newlyweds from Boston I dined with at
Excalibur’s Tournament of Kings Dinner Show in Las Vegas, to the bikers
(complete with bandanas, tats, chains, and molls on their arms) wasted on
Hurricanes on a walking tour of the French Quarter in New Orleans who became my
best, inseparable mates for the rest of the night after hearing me ask a
question of the tour guide, to the recently retired soldier at a Halloween party
in Virginia dressed up as Towelie, there were interesting conversations with
them all, no pretension, just a welcoming and a desire to truly engage with me –
all from a rather diverse range of people.
Then there is the natural beauty – all too little of which I got to take in. The
very Australian appearance of San Diego, the harsh bareness and unbelievable
scope of the Grand Canyon, the bayous of Cajun Country, even the simple
Virginian countryside. I still remember now the peace
and tranquillity I experienced in the Grand Canyon. The helicopter had just
picked up most of our tour group from our boat ride on the river and flown off,
leaving us last few stragglers. As the noise from the rotors died off in the
distance, the hot, dry summer’s day had its silence broken only by the lapping
of the water on the dock, the chirp of the cicadas, and the odd sound of wind as
the breeze would pick up, bringing that smell of summer with it. If it were up
to me, I would have called the folks back home right then and there and said
“Sell all my shit and send the money over. I am going
to build me a cabin right here.”
But it is not just the people or the natural countryside, I find the regional
diversity amazing – cultural and cuisine. Southern California, to Texas, to New
Orleans, to Virginia to the North East. Every place with such a different feel
and different flavour to the other, I only wish I had more time to properly
experience it all. True as that all is, but still not enough to make a spiritual
home out of.
There is the fact that no nation has done so much for so many others. No nation
that has done more in the service of service of freedom, capitalism, and
individual liberty. While the British Empire was the most benevolent empire in
history, all the good they did was still primarily for the glory of the British
Empire.
Through World War 2, through the Cold War, through Somalia and the Balkans, and
still today in the war on terror, others benefit from the toil of the US. If
there is another nation in history that can boast that record, I am not aware of
it.
And that speaks to the character of the nation of a whole (as generalising as
that may be) but it starts to bring me back to my initial point.
All those things combined, all of them pull the various threads together
but it does not secure them. For that, you need to go back some 230 odd years.
It is the ideals of the Founding Fathers – limited government, individual
freedom, and the inalienable rights of its citizens – that calls to me, very
close to my heart, even more so over the past couple of years, but particularly
over this past week. What truly speaks to me is their
brilliance, their clarity, their courage to try something that had never been
done before, their willingness to sacrifice all they had for what they might
achieve, and their belief in that, in the American people, and above all in
those rights nobody can deny another.
And that is why the Heller decision makes me desire more than ever to be a part
of it. It is not that “yes everyone can own a firearm” for the sake of owning a
firearm. It is the deeper message behind it. It is that a court of law has come
down and said to an entire country “Yes. You citizens of this nation have this
right that the State cannot take away.”
Yeah I know the four worthless pieces of leftist shit lied and slimed and
slithered their way into pretending “The People” really means “the States and
not The People” (and a special fuck you to Justice Stevens and his ‘the majority
would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to
limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses
of weapons.’ Hey fuckhead – have a read of a document called The Bill of Rights
(which actually includes the amendment the case you are supposed to be ruling on
relates to), you might find that pretty much the entire document is about
limitations on government power) but despite them, you have a nation founded on
the concept that certain rights cannot be taken away.
And if I may indulge a little more, the First Amendment protects the right of
all to (among other things) point out and remind others that many of the
Founders considered (if not accepted) that the time will come when the
government will intrude too much on the liberties of its citizens and need to be
overthrown, and the Second Amendment protects the right of all to own and equip
the tools necessary to actually do that.
I don’t have the words to properly express the feelings I get when I think about
that, short of being in total fucking awe of it. The sentiment behind it all is
sheer brilliance and it speaks to a freedom and trust in the nation’s citizens I
want to experience and belong to. But for now, I can only celebrate it in spirit
with my American brothers and sisters.
And that I shall do.
To all loyal and patriotic Americans, all freedom loving, right minded people
celebrate this day with you. I bow my head and tip my glass to you, your great
nation, and those who founded it. Happy 4th of July to you all.
© by Tiberius Alatheus 2008