Then maybe you're in the wrong place, still too close to that right wing Texan hubris. wc
----- Original Message ---- From: ARMANDO BAEZA <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sat, July 7, 2012 5:30:43 PM Subject: Re: Independence Day Feeling legal is easy and natural,but Feeling recognize as American must be wonderful feeling that I have yet to enjoy. ab --- On Sat, 7/7/12, William Conger <[email protected]> wrote: From: William Conger <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Independence Day To: [email protected] Date: Saturday, July 7, 2012, 3:06 PM You may not feel recognized as a citizen because of instilled cultural prejudice and social stratifying but of course, legally, you are as full a citizen as one can be! It's the legal status that counts. wc ----- Original Message ---- From: ARMANDO BAEZA <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sat, July 7, 2012 4:55:03 PM Subject: Re: Independence Day Besides that,I was born in the USA 88 years ago, but I'm not recognize as an American,so I don't quit feel it either, Felice quatrodejulio. My Father Refujio,was born on "SantoRefujio 4th of July day".So as a child,that what i celebrated, firecrackers and all. mando --- On Sat, 7/7/12, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Independence Day To: [email protected] Date: Saturday, July 7, 2012, 1:21 PM An effective array of good moment-summoning details, William. The ability to do that is no doubt allied to the ability to select the details that make for good representational visual art. I've often felt that if you hadn't gone into visual art yourself, you might have become a novelist -- provided you could provide the necklace-chain of plot. As for this country's being the best, I agree, so I hope you didn't see the first episode of Sorkin's new tv series NEWSROOM. It opens with a rattle of data that supposedly prove we are not the best country. But there's a defective logic at work. For example, the opening datum was, I think, that our kids rank 15th or 25th or something in the world when it comes to math scores. Number 1 was Finland. At best, all judgments of "best" are arbitrary, but the pertinence of that datum in judging that Finland is a "better" country than the U.S. is dubious to me. In a message dated 7/4/12 12:56:16 PM, [email protected] writes: > I'm a sappy romantic patriot when it comes to Independence day. I love > remembering the joyous days of youth when we had plenty of firecrackers, > smoke > bombs, 'Roman candles' and maybe a few outlawed cherry bombs. We had the > run of > the little Wisconsin farm town and probably did dangerous things by > setting off > 'fingerling' firecrackers by every little pigtailed girl we saw or by > blowing up > tin cans with bigger three-inch firecrackers and shooting our bee-be guns > at > every sparrow we glimpsed. The cherry bombs were saved for something > special, > something big, out of adult view. I remember the flag parades down Main > Street > with the old WWI veterans trudging loosely ahead of snappy young soldiers > in > close formation. The pathetic High school Band did its best, too, and all > applauded them. Then we had our big afternoon picnic on a bluff > overlooking the > Mississippi and I can assure you it was pure Americana with lots of fat > relatives in aprons spreading out their three hundred varieties of potato > salads, cold chicken, beer, pop and cookies on half-rotted picnic tables > while > Oshkosh-by-Gosh farmer-husbands lit campfires for hot-dogs and > marshmellows. We > messy reckless kids ran and climbed trees, stick-chasing puppies barked, > sputtering old sun-faded rattle-trap cars still steamed under a big tree > at the > hilltop. Best of all was the huge vista of blue sky, the wide river, > and the > distant woodsy lands beyond (where imaginary Indians danced). None of it > was > ever equal led in later, older eyes. Now I want to celebrate the grown > up > American Dream that underpinned that children's' delight: Social equality > and > fellowship; honesty and fair play; freedom with charity. If you're an > American, > you'd better wave that flag today or be shamed. You almost surely have > more good > fortune than you deserve. I'll also celebrate liberal-progressive > ancestors > David Conger, private NJ militia, 1776-78; Edward Conkling, Sag Harbor NY, > Commander of Privateer Eagle killed at sea by British foes, 8 May 1779; > and > David Seabury, patriot, killed at Ft. Groton CT by mercenaries led by > traitor > Benedict Arnold, 6 Sept. 1781. They and millions of others have assured > our > still evolving ideals and Independence, still the best ever devised and > sustained so long. It's a cultural aesthetic. > wc
