Random News: July 4, 2022

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

---

Good morning. It’s July 4, 2022, and it’s a Monday. Some national holiday thoughts ahead…

• Pretty tough to enjoy Independence Day at the moment. A lot of Americans suddenly feel far less independent than they did a couple of weeks ago.
• I’d say Americans are kind of made for moments like these. Facing adversity, fighting against insurmountable odds, never backing down… all that superhero stuff that we tend to enjoy.
• What kind of amazes me is that there’s a big chunk of the “FREEDOM!” people who are celebrating rights being taken away from themselves and their fellow Americans.
• Here’s a quick thought. Clarence Thomas has stated that the overturn of Roe will lead to a reconsideration of other cases. One of those is Lawrence vs. Texas. It’s about sodomy. Let’s talk about that.
• In 1960, every state in the USA had an anti-sodomy law. What is sodomy?
• Sodomy is any kind of sexual act not intended for procreation. It’s mostly used as an excuse to persecute any homosexual behavior.
• However, the law applies to any kind of sex that doesn’t involve a penis in a vagina.
• If Lawrence is overturned, let’s normalize calling the cops on married heterosexual couples who engage in oral sex. How’s that sound? Not good? Invading your privacy? Un-American?
• You get what you ask for.
• Back on the topic of today, it’s the USA’s 246th birthday. That’s not very old at all. One of my friends in the UK lives in a house that’s older than our country.
• Three old ladies back to back is 246 years. A lady born in 1776 who dies in 1856, and one born then who dies in 1936, and one born then who’s still alive today. Easy.
• England was established over a thousand years ago in 927 (with the unification of Angles, Saxons, and Danes). But that’s nothing. India had an established government over 4,000 years ago in 2000 BCE. Both Egypt and Iran’s governments were established over 5,000 years ago.
• 246 years is nothing.
• I remember the bicentennial well. It was, obviously, 1976, and I was seven. My grandma said that everyone across America would ring little bells at noon that day, and sent me a bell to that end. I walked out to the end of my driveway and waited until the moment, perhaps expecting to hear the sonorous sound of bells large and small, symbolic of freedom and the promise of America, echoing across the plains and over the hillsides. The moment came and I began to ring the tiny bell, looking around expectantly and pausing every so often to hear the other bells.
• Utter silence. I was all alone and I had the only bell. I was disappointed as I trudged back up the driveway. But, looking back, I did ring that damn bell for all it was worth.
• I’m disappointed today too, but I’m still ringing my bell, metaphorically anyway.
• My criticism of what this country does is based on my vision of the potential this country has.
• If you ask your friends from other countries what they think of America, many of the answers are the same. With some perspective, it’s easy to both hate what America does, and love the American people, despite the fact that this country is supposed to truly represent its people more than any place before it.
• But it doesn’t, and that’s the fight. That’s always the fight. If I am critical of America, it’s because I want it to to be MORE American, and representing the needs and desires of all its citizens, male and female, black and white and brown, speaking whatever language they speak, worshipping as they choose, loving whomever they love.
• One thing we get here that I believe isn’t offered anywhere else is a guarantee of the possibility that you’ll be happy. It’s right there in the Declaration of Independence.
• "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
• Note that they don’t say you’ll definitely be happy per se. But they do say you have the right to TRY and be happy. That’s pretty cool. That’s good stuff.
• A note about the signing of the Declaration. You have to understand that this was crazy shit. They weren’t like, “Yeah! America! Fist pump! High five!”
• It’s said the atmosphere in the room was very somber and gloomy, mostly because each of them assumed they were signing their own death warrants.
• There was a comic relief moment, apparently, when Benjamin Harrison, a fat man, said to Elbridge Gerry, a skinny guy, "I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes and be with the Angels, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead."
• Good times.
• But here we are, 246 years later. Will we last another 246 years? We didn’t even get to 100 years without a civil war. It’s hard to say. Logically, based on currently trends, the answer is no, we won’t.
• I like to think of America like a child. Your child isn’t always perfect. Your child doesn’t do homework, or falls in with a bad crowd and gets addicted to drugs, or runs into legal problems. Or maybe you are super lucky and have a great kid,, but then they turn out to be a very different person than you are.
• But you still love the child. You support and encourage the child. You correct the child when they make a mistake. You show your child how to be a good person via your own example.
• And that’s America. You don’t stop trying to make it better. Not as a good parent, and not as a good citizen. The worst kinds of each are those who don’t give a fuck.
• You gotta give a fuck.
• While I was writing these here bullets, someone asshole shot up a July 4th parade in Highland Park, IL, a wealthy suburb of Chicago. At least five dead, 16 wounded for the moment. Probably more.
• While you’re having your hot dog and watching fireworks (which, by the way, I will not be doing), remember that if you love your country, you want to fix these problems. It doesn’t mean you love it less; it means you love it too much to watch it fuck itself up time and time again. It means you love it more.
• Happy 4th.
• QotD: “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” - George Washington
• Today in history… Chinese and Arab astronomers observe a supernova (1054). The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress (1776). The US Military Academy at West Point opens (1802). John Adams and Thomas Jefferson die on the same day (1826). John Neal delivers the first public lecture in the US on women’s rights (1832). Henry David Thoreau moves into a cabin on Walden Pond (1845). The Confederate Army withdraws after losing the Battle of Gettysburg (1863). Lou Gehrig says he is the “luckiest man on the face of the Earth” and retires (1939). The Philippines gains independence from the USA (1946). The 50-star flag debuts (1960). The US celebrates the Bicentennial (1976). The discovery of the Higgs boson is announced at CERN (2012).
• July 4 is the birthday of geographer George Everest (1790), novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804), songwriter Stephen Foster (1826), President Calvin Coolidge (1872), cartoonist Rube Goldberg (1883), gangster Meyer Lansky (1902), evil bitch Leona Helmsley (1920), sex symbol Gina Lollobrigida (1927), playwright Neil Simon (1927), football executive Al Davis (1929), singer-songwriter Bill Withers (1938), journalist Geraldo Rivera (1943), activist Ron Kovic (1946),  and singer-songwriter John Waite (1952).

I hope you enjoy this day. I already am, doing what I do. I mentioned above that I’m not taking part in any fireworks shows or the like, and that is because I refuse to celebrate freedom while it’s being forcibly taken away from so many people I care about. But feel free to celebrate or not in your own way. That’s freedom too.