Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion...

But nowhere in the Bill of Rights does it promise Freedom from Writer's Block.

Look out! This is a serious posting, devoid of LOL. I like to try to keep my blog light-hearted and upbeat. I generally want to avoid politics and other serious topics for two reasons: I don't think I'm articulate or informed enough to write well about such complex matters and I don't want to bore the pants off my blog-buddies. However, I'm beginning to see that I need an occasional serious moment to clear my mind of a preoccupation if it stifles my sense of humor. So I have to say that the Fourth of July is no fun for me anymore.

[Cue twittering birds and gentle, lilting music] I can recall a time when the Fourth of July was simpler. A day for eating, swimming and parade-watching. My home town is pretty small, but the neighboring town that hosted the area's Fourth of July parade is even smaller. John, if you're out there, help me - what's the population of Dalton? Well, we'd go over there for the parade, and then go back over at night for fireworks. We'd sit in the mosquito-y grass and wait. Boom! A firework would go off. We'd admire it, then talk amongst ourselves while the fire department got another one ready. Boom! Like that. That was the Fourth of July.

Now, I live in a place with better fireworks. I can clearly remember the first summer after we moved here, seeing fireworks going off in quick succession for the first time. Simultaneously, even. I was floored. That was fun. But either I'm imagining things or the Fourth of July is changing. I would be interested to know if this is just the case in super-conservative Utah, or whether is is the same everywhere in the country.

Now, it's a holiday in which we engage in the collective Beating of Chests. In which we shout from the rooftops about our Freedoms (as if no on else has any), our God-Given Rights, our Patriotism. I capitalize these words because they have been taken captive and given new definitions by our propaganda. Heavy words that we toss around lightly because they're reduced to jingoistic catch-phrases. Here are some others that drive me crazy: Family Values; a Nation of Laws; Support Our Troops. Underlying them. they have expected behaviors, veiled threats and intent to polarize.

I'm a language person, so I pay close attention to discourse. Why do we choose the words we choose? What's our intent when we use them? Solidarity or exclusion? I'm sick of the belligerent assumptions about American superiority. Whistling in the dark, if you ask me.

This kind of thinking has actually prevented me from blogging. Maybe I need another blog for my favorite rants: health care, xenophobia, campaign finance reform. Good lord, who'd want to read it?

At any rate, after the fireworks we went home and put the kids to bed; and I made raspberry jam. It was 11 PM when I started, but mashing raspberries with a potato masher eased my mind a little bit.