Firecracker Lament

[Lightning Rod]

Help me here. I'm having a little trouble getting into the spirit this Fourth of July.

Normally, the 4th is a mellow, happy day for me. I like picnics and watermelon and The Boston Pops playing under a shower of fireworks. When I was a child, I thought they called them The Boston Pops because of the fireworks.

Independence Day is the only day of the year when I let my patriotism out of the closet. My Skeptic's Oath usually prevents me from surrendering to patriotism, but on the 4th I abandon myself to the heady smell of gunpowder and freedom. I go full-jingo drag and wrap myself in the flag. I get misty when I hear them play 'America." It's not uncommon for me to read The Declaration of Independence just to remember what the day is about. If I've been to the beer cooler enough times, I've been known to read it aloud.

I love this country, this land, this People and the ideal of independence that they represent. I'm just not too fond of our current government.

The Imperial Branch of government thinks that Separation of Powers is Mike Myers' next comedy film. They wag their fingers at the press, the Congress and the Judiciary. They rave about activist judges legislating from the bench, and all the while they are making up their own law and ignoring not only the laws that they don't like but also ignoring the principles that our country was founded upon, the principles that we celebrate today.

That's why I am experiencing a slight spell of poetic melancholy. I don't know if I can bear to read the Declaration today, not even silently. I might come to that passage that says:

"with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it"

or the one that says:

"But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security."

It's just sad the way we Americans, we relatively free Americans, have betrayed the spirit of our independence and allowed a cabal of aristocrats to rule our lives, spy on us and steal our money. It's just sad.

We watch our so-called leaders squabble over politics rather than policy. It's just sad. They talk about gay marriage and flag burning. I call this fiddling while Rome is burning. It's just sad.

It's sad for the Iraqis too. They deserve independence. Do you know when America achieved independence? It's when George III's Redcoats sailed back to England.

Why am I sad? I feel like you feel on the birthday of a departed loved one.

Picture me alone and friendless sitting on the deck in the back yard.
I light my lonely sparkler and sob into my piece of watermelon.

It's just sad.

lrod July 4, 2006

[Arcadia]

oh... how can I say... enjoy the watermelon!!! (por lo menos!).

[stilltrucking]

I was planing on skipping the fourth this year too. But the Schertz annual parade is going right by my back door. Hard to ignore. I was hoping to see some fire works when a church sponsored float went by. A hug flag flying from a twenty foot flag pole on it. The flag pole got tangled up in some wires overhead. But they were just telephone wires.

Well said Clay. Let your tears fall on the water mellon. It tastes sweeter with a little salt. A southern custom I think. I have never seen anyone in the north put salt on their water mellon.

I hope you have a safe holiday.

[mnaz]

I lament the "redneck factor". Quite a difference between winning freedom and independence, vs. setting off 'crackers while slurring speech and slurring anyone who questions King George and the G.O.P., the party of "moral and family values", the "party of life".... Fuckers. They were up at 4:30 this morning, lightin' off 'crackers.... Fuckers. Stab 'em in the eye, and all that (thanks, firsty).

This place is still one of the freest societies going, though slipping down the list. But we've never had uncut "democracy" or complete liberty in this country. It's always been run by some sort of "aristocracy" and hemmed in by various rackets, simply because national politics involves boatloads of money and influence.

Our "founding fathers" set up a good system of checks and balances for government, and had the right idea about "liberty and justice for all" (did they write the 'Pledge'?). But we didn't get it right, even then. "Liberty and justice?" For women denied the vote? For the slaves? No. In many ways, we're better off now, but the trend is appalling. King Bush's abuses are over the top.

Yeah.... watermelon and barbeque and paying tribute.... I can dig. Rednecks lightin' off 'crackers and demonizing gay people and writin' death threats to Natalie Maines.... that I can do without. These days, I could use more 'liberty and justice', and less 'rockets red glare'.

Happy 4th.

Happy 5th and 6th, for that matter.

[Zlatko Waterman]

Dear mnaz and all:

Happy Fourth of July, and here's a nice succinct history of the "Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag":

http://history.vineyard.net/pledge.htm

--Z

[mtmynd]

O! say can you see
by the dawn's early light
America being robbed
by our own political might

Once so proudly we hailed
for over 200 years
these hard fought freedoms
eroding from our fears

The bombs bursting in air
and the rocket's red glare
gives proof to us all
that our Freedom's getting bare

O! say will that star-spangled banner still wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave
in two thousand and eight
or will it be just a little bit too late..?

[stilltrucking]

Lets not forget July 14, Bastille Day


I think I will join Homer Simpson and sing a different tune this year.

Season Fourteen (2002-2003)
"Bart of War" (EABF16) - After a fight breaks out at the baseball game, Sideshow Mel suggests to sing a song. The Sea Captain recommends "Not a hymn to war like our national anthem, but a sweet soothing hymn like the national anthem of Canada".

The entire crowd then joined hands in the shape of the maple leaf and sang Oh Canada. "Well Bart, we've learned that war is not the answer," said Milhouse. To which Bart replies, "Except to all of America's problems".

http://ccr.ptbcanadian.com/simpsons/

[mtmynd]

Very appropriate quote, Jack... really!

[mnaz]

Thanks for the 'Pledge' history, Z. I really should know those things.

A fairly noble effort by Bellamy, it seems, tampered with by the usual suspects over the years. "Liberty and justice" seems key here, lest we pledge unconditional allegiance to a piece of cloth.

Interesting about the philosopher, Mortimer Adler, who argued that equality, liberty, and justice were the 3 great ideas of American political tradition... justice mediates between the oft-conflicting goals of liberty and equality.

And note how Bellamy wanted to add "equality" to the Pledge, but knew most of his peers were against equality for women and black people.

Interesting read.

[Zlatko Waterman]

Dear mnaz and all:

Edward Bellamy has long been a favorite of mine, because of LOOKING BACKWARD.

I had no idea previously that his relative had written the Pledge, but I did know the whole family were Baptists. What a contrast with the Bush Baptists, eh? Christian socialism has a long history in Europe and the US. Today many people try to represent Jesus Christ as ( in the words of James Joyce, satirizing this idea in ULYSSES) " a cracking good business proposition-- and on the level!"

I'm always amused when the ragged beggar, Jesus, who won't even let his disciples take any money with them on their mission, has some representation ( such as a fish--the Greek Icthys) . . . on people's business cards. Our plumber has exactly that, for instance. Plumbing for Jesus, I guess. Well, he IS honest.

nice link:

http://www.aveyinc.com/fish.htm

Bellamy, a kind of H.G. Wells before Wells, was a somewhat subversive visionary, in my view. The excerpts on this site are worth reading:

http://www2.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/bellamy.html

One last tickle of a note-- when I typed "Jesus: Fish Symbol" into Google to get the link above, the margin of the finder list site site showed:

JESUS FISH SYMBOL!
GREAT OPPORTUNITIES ON EBAY!

your 4th of July,

--Z

[stilltrucking]

I'm always amused when the ragged beggar, Jesus

Could you give me a reference on that Z?

I have never heard Jesus called a ragged beggar before

[Zlatko Waterman]

The "ragged beggar" characterization is my own-- in terms of those exact words, though there are many allusions to the poverty of Jesus in the NT, as well as JC's own use of poverty, metaphorically and literally, to preach and to instruct.

The story of the rich man who would not renounce his wealth to follow Jesus ( who, then, presumably, is without wealth) is the basis for the "evangelical counsel" of poverty and is found in all three synoptics with slight variations-- MK 10:17; MT 19:16; LK 18:18.

In Matthew, Jesus makes the total renunciation of wealth ( i.e. assuming a state that might be called, by some constructions, " beggary") a condition of "following Him" ( as Saint Francis, in his complete "imitatio Christi" becomes a beggar-- necessarily also ragged . . .). The group of disciples lived as Jesus did and had given up homes and income MT 19:27-29; MK 10:28-30; LK 18:28-30.

The admission of the poor to the Kingdom of Heaven is found in the parables of the banquet--LK 14:15 and of the rich man and Lazarus LK 16:19-31.

But it is true that the NT never explicitly refers to Jesus using the words I extrapolated from Bible reading and study: "ragged beggar."

One can dig around considerably in the NT, with or without the help of a Bible concordance, and find many other utterances extolling the virtues of poverty or the rejection of riches-- which are generally construed by Jesus to be an impediment to salvation.

In John L. McKenzie's widely used and referred to DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE, he says:

"The dominant idea of poverty in the Gospels comes not only from the words of Jesus but from His life. He belonged Himself to the lower classes ( not strictly true-- he was an artisan-- a carpenter-- my note) and made no attempt to escape or disguise it. ( . . .) His refusal to accept any income, even by earning, is a striking feature of his public life . . ."

The OXFORD COMPANION TO THE BIBLE emphasizes that:

" . . .poverty is embraced not just or even primarily for the sake of others but as a means of freedom from material goods that enables one to attain a higher spiritual state in union with Jesus, who in an apparently hyperbolic proverb, said to one who would follow him, " Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (MT 8:20; LK 9:58).

--Z

[stilltrucking]

Poverty is one thing. Begging is another. Could you please give me a Bible reference on Jesus begging for anything.

I have never read the New Testament. Just bits and pieces.

[mtmynd]

Allow me to butt into this, Jack...

All that Z has provided in his references is accurate. Now. your asking for a direct quote from the bible regarding whether he was a beggar or not, I don't think that is in the bible itself.

However, if you accept the fact that he was an itinerant preacher, (and apparently no longer a carpenter by trade), due to his enlightenment, it would logically follow that in order to continue eating, he would accept food from whatever sources were available. There is no reference in the bible that I've ever heard that stated he always had money in his robe to buy food whenever he was hungry.

Whether he was an actual beggar (like a monk with his beggars bowl) or not, I think it is understandable that he would, during his travels, at some point ask for food... a 'form' of begging. IMO.

[Zlatko Waterman]

Dear ST:

As I said, I extrapolated from my own acquaintanceship with the New Testament in calling Jesus a "ragged beggar."

Others, not I alone, find the imagery convenient as a way to emphasize divine "poverty', or total dependence on God. Christ is pictured in films, like BEN-HUR as a beggar or a slave, and the legends of St. Vincent de Paul, as well as imagery of the saint's icon, call Christ a beggar:

http://vsi.depaul.edu/bookstore/Reading ... _Icon.html

So, ST, while I cannot meet the challenge you pose, other than, perhaps, showing Jesus begging that " . . .this cup may pass . . ." from Him.

Here are those instances:

"My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me. Nevertheless, not as I will but as Thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39).

" Abba, Father, all things are possible to Thee: remove this chalice from Me; but not what I will, but what Thou wilt" (Mark 14:36).

"Father, if Thou wilt, remove this chalice from Me: but yet not My will, but Thine be done" (Luke 22:42). "

One may or may not find, in the tangle of mystifying and Christifying, a "begging" in this. I shall not exert myself to convince you that this is begging.

And with this comment, I leave the beggar's stage, simply one more beggar among all the rest.

My ability to extrapolate to someone else's satisfaction on theology, I'm afraid, beggars my imagination.

Ta-ta,

--Z