Happy Fourth, Y'all!
I hope everyone has had a chance to see this rather ingenious mash-up of President Bush "singing" "Sunday, Bloody Sunday." The creators of this little ditty employed some inventive editing of Bush's State of the Union addresses to present the "war President" covering the U2 classic with delicious irony.
I couldn't have expressed my feelings about America and the 4th of July (and the aforelinked video) better than E.J. Dionne did in today's
Washington Post.
[T]he progressive and the reformer have a problem with what passes for unadulterated patriotism. By nature, the reformer is bound to insist that the country, however glorious, is not a perfect place, that it is capable of doing wrong as well as right. The nation that declared "all men are created equal" was, at the time those words were written, the home of an extensive system of slavery.
Most reformers guard their patriotic credentials by moving quickly to the next logical step: that the true genius of America has always been its capacity for self-correction. I'd assert that this is a better argument for patriotism than any effort to pretend that the Almighty has marked us as the world's first flawless nation.
(Emphasis added)
As for me, I'm going to display my patriotism by spending the day sucking down Icee Pops and light beer, watching various sporting events and running around the back yard shooting Roman Candles at my siblings. I'm sure there will also be bratwurst and hamburgers involved...maybe even some barbeque and A-1 sauce.
Hope your day's just as good!