Oh, really? Forgive me a smile at what I hope is a sin of rhetorical excess, but you don't have the right to decide that for the country. Decide for yourself if you like but as a fellow named Goldwyn said, include me out.
One of the things I'm celebrating is that a fellow such as yourself can make that sort of public statement without fear of recrimination (any worse than an Internet spanking). For free. To an audience of tens of thousands. That's what FR is. Don't you find in that even the tiniest thing to celebrate?
Let me be specific. Yesterday I finished my work, got in an automobile, and drove one hundred miles to my home. The government tells me how fast it intends me to drive. The government can go to hell, I make that decision. Halfway up I crossed the rez and stopped at a fireworks stand to purchase the wherewithal for a piece of my celebration. It's a stand called "Two Vets" and it's a shack in a field with Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps flags flying and one other, one for the tribe, containing a book and a cross and a feather. From a man I've known for years I purchased a package that the government says I cannot have. The government can go to hell, I make that decision. I shall celebrate the Fourth of July in the company of family on a little piece of land on a lake that is my home, and I shall drink beer and grill food and argue politics with my liberal relatives, and when it gets dark I'm going to light off stuff that would get me shunned by a horrified neighborhood in the city...or maybe not. They might just like it, you know. And the government can go to hell.
So that's what I'm celebrating: the ability to tell the government to go to hell. The government is not America, I am America. And anyone who thinks otherwise had better cover his ears when the fireworks go off. This thing could yet come to violence but you know what? If it does I like our chances. That's what I'm celebrating. If you want to be a part of this, FRiend, you'd better start figuring out what you're for, because knowing what you're against isn't enough. God bless America, and have a happy Independence Day.
Understood and agreed.
You’re much more optimistic than I am.
Happy Independence Day