delusion

the pontificating & pointless manifesto of julies tangential rant:

happy fourth of july, motherfuckers.

fireworks whistle across the night sky, like missiles seeking their targets. the projectiles stop mid-air and explode with an exaggerated baritone boom-snap. Like the illumination rounds and guided rockets that smear the Iraqi sky that hangs over 138,000 american troops heads. the nights dark is shattered by brightly colored clouds of sizzling lights. children and loudly cooing adults lay on their backs, on blankets spread over grass. they ooh and they aahh as white hot sprinkles of light shower down and fade. never landing, just raining softly onto the horizon as the pyrotechnicians in their fireproof gloves light the fuse of the next (tested and approved by city zoning officials) showy display of self-congratulatory patriotism.
the irony of this red, white and blue theatre performance is that few of the players even realize that they are taking part in a pantomime. no american can forget when the fourth of july is, but we stopped remembering independence day. god bless america we say. but we never sing songs of glory to the separation of church and state.
bald headed and bored-clothed, american boys sit, broken and bruised, distant and dissipated, in foreign deserts, under foreign skies. there were no red and white checkered blankets spread out on iraqi desert sand. for soldiers, there was no beer, no barbeque, no mom hugs or son shrieks of delight. there were no fireworks painted across the night. firework explosions, there, would invite reciprocation to sail over the guarded walls and join their muted celebration. those kinds of fireworks dont politely stop short at the vertex of their parabola and fade quietly. in iraqi skies, the pyrotechnic comets that scream across the open night are calculated and unmannerly. they land and they destroy and they take dads and brothers and sons, without asking for names.
i listen to them as they sing, this is the land of the free, as they watch $400,000 pyrotechnic displays from their backs, on the grassy football field of the local high school. the schools that lack the funding to install wheelchair ramps. (guess no child left behind didnt include the handicapped, huh, mr. president?)
and i hope that they realize when they sing it, that this is the home of the brave but our bravest arent at home. i wonder if they even know that the starred and striped flag that they wave has begun to look defiant and angry to most of the world.
our pride filled banner, we pledged allegiance to it, daily, all of our lives. in unison, in monotone, we recited it from memory. we thought we knew it by heart. and to the republic, for which it stands. one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. these were the wedding vows we took so that we would remember.
how many of us havent broken them? we are divided and unjust.
somebody forgot.
i forgot to vote last year. my sister forgot to care. my dad forgot to watch the state of the union address. my grandma forgot who was running for president. we stopped pledging allegiance; we stopped putting our hands over our hearts.
there was one time when evil flew over our homes and knocked two twin giants out of the sky. all of us remembered then. we cried american tears and we found the newspaper stand. we didnt skip the front page to find the movie listings.
we remembered that there is a whole world out there, outside of our ignorant, capitalist, pop culture revering existence. we remembered that tony blair is the prime minister of england and that we like him. we remembered that france can be a little hostile and we dont much care for that. some of us remembered how to turn fear and propaganda into blind, obedient hate. (thank you japanese-american sequesterment and air raid drills of WWII for providing such a fine example of how to legislate ignorant fear and loathing).
we called them freedom fries and we cried out for war and retaliation. fox news net and CNN perseverated and persisted. over and over, as frantic and somber banners scrolled updates across the screen, those twin towers were resurrected and then extinguished in a single orange puff of terror.
action movie dulled and videogame numbed, we sat and watched in indignant horror, the crisp, hollywood film clear video. it was a fantastical, impossible shipwreck in the sky. impenetrable steel walls were shattered, two tall gleaming vessels sunk under a sea of smoke and 2,823 skin and bone remainders of lives and loves and now losses were strewn, dashed to bits, on the reef.
oh, how noble a cause we fight for when hate filled clouds of smoke replace skyscrapers and grief filled spaces replace moms and husbands.
september 12 flew more flags than july 4 that year. we all pledged allegiance that day. american kids recited those words and they remembered. some of them knew that allegiance means dedication to duty. they pledged with their fingers raised to their foreheads, weaponry over their hearts.
they breathed in sand and exhaled sweat and blood. they lost and found, lives and leaders. they feared and they cried and they lived
and they died.
but the fireworks show dazzles away. the grand finale explodes across the black expanse that hangs above an expectant crowd. they cheer the technicolor blooms and the bursts of percussion, like popcorn breaking free of its kernels.
we paint the night sky, we sing and we mark the calendar every year. july 4, its a date preserved in the history books, on its own national holiday, so that americans will always remember. but americans pack picnic baskets, put them in the back of their gas slurping SUVs, drive to their local impoverished, under resourced high school and lay on their backs, falling into the masturbatory glow of self congratulation.
happy fourth of july, motherfuckers. heres a little freedom of speech for you:
your president celebrated independence day in west virginia this year. he gave a speech where he announced that americans can celebrate in safety this year, now that saddam hussein is in captivity. maybe one of you suburban fucks with your self righteous christian hearts and your dollar sign filled eyes can go remind your commander-in-chief that there was no link found between iraq and al queda. saddam hussein was never a direct threat to american civilians. but youre too worried about getting fags like me to stop kissing other girls to actually worry about a silly little thing like that.
so enjoy your old navy sweater, with its cute little american flag logo. how fucking festive. enjoy your barbequed meat and your cold beer. choke down the campaign of distraction and revisionist history fed to you from courage the cowardly war hawk in west virginia while the real men fight and die.
i love america. the red blood in my blue veins was conceived, born and bred here. and i will die here. i believe in the constitution , written by brave soldiers and thinkers that dared to question corrupt government. the constitution that is being altered and ignored by our leaders. i believe in democracy, an administration and a nation-state that is dictated by the people, by the opinion of the public.
but, really, i dont want you to rock the vote. i dont want you to let your voice be heard. in fact- if you arent informed on the issues, please shut the fuck up. dont vote because Britney spears told you to. dont vote because you want to wear the little i voted sticker on your lapel at the office so you look responsible.
vote because you can. vote because you can wear a shirt that reads fuck bush in the polling booth. vote because you can wear a turban, or a bra or black skin and your vote still counts the same. read a newspaper. ponder this:
what kind of precedent is set for our childrens generations when a pre-emptive war is waged against a country that poses no immediate threat? 13,000 american dead. 0 of them were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. only 11 terrorists were traded for 13,000 american dead bodies. and those 11 did us the favor of going down with their hate fueled ships in that collision in the sky.
you believe that fuck this war. bring our boys home means soft on terrorism. fuck your FOX news net brand of patriotism.
i love my country all the time. ill love my government when i deserves it. i dont need your fireworks. i dont need to wave a flag or sing along to corny country music hits. i dont need to hide behind your star spangled battle cry.
dont tell me to have a happy fucking fourth of july. go talk about happy to the 13,085 americans that died in iraq this year. tell them about how fucking patriotic you are.
enjoy your recreation of the rockets red glare and the bombs bursting in air. you always do watch the bright, flashing distractions and forget that all you are seeing is the government tested and approved reenactment of war.
happy independence day, mr. president. 13,085 dead. fine job youre doing. now, tell me that pro-life part again?