Month: July 2002 (Page 5 of 5)

Happy 4th of July

?America is advanced citizenship. You?ve got to want it bad.?
-Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas), The American President

I love this country.

At the same time, I?m troubled by the road we?re walking these days. We forget that we?re a young nation. We?re like a rebellious 14-year-old who hasn?t yet learned the painful lesson that we don?t know everything after all. When you learn that lesson is when you become an adult. We?re not there yet.

We forget that it?s called ?Independence Day,? and not ?Loyalty Day.? I fear that we?re in danger of losing that independence that so many fought and died for. Independence means questioning the status quo, sticking up for ourselves and our values, and not blindly following what we?re told, especially by the government. Where is that spirit today?

I?m disturbed that real freedom and consideration of issues that shape our lives have given way to bumper stickers, saber-rattling songs on the radio, and ?United We Stand? paperweights on QVC. When did blind acceptance become the most important virtue in our society? It seems to me that spirit of acceptance and unquestioning loyalty goes against everything upon which this nation was founded.

I say these things because I love America. And I can say them because I live in America. We have to wake up and think about what this country really means, or one day we?ll lose the freedoms we thought we would never have to fight for again.

Tonight I did something that apparently 25,000 people do every day. And I’m pretty pissed off about it. There’s nothing like tripping over a tiny rock in the parking lot, in full view of your neighbor watering her plants, and wildly flailing as you go down like a sack of potatoes. It’s not a bad sprain, but public embarrassment coupled with lack of mobility can really put you in a foul mood. Trust me.

It’s so hot….

I feel like if I look in the mirror, I’m going to see one of those guys at the end of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with his face melting off.

Feel free to recount your heat-related complaints in the comments. I’m going to go crawl in an ice cave.

I’ve seen a lot of movies lately.

Enigma
Two solid hours, and every single thing that happened in the movie happened off-screen, and was recounted to others in painful, British-accented exposition. Stinker.

Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
A pleasant surprise. A little overwrought at times, but sweet-hearted and well-acted. The young leads are extremely effective at depicting what it’s like to be 14, and the animation by Todd McFarlane is icing on the cake. Oh, and Jodie Foster plays a one-legged nun.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Fluffy and filled with stereotyping, this movie is still a fun, lightweight summer experience. You walk out with a smile on your face, and these days, what more can you ask for?

I’ve been doing a fair amount of writing lately, for the e-mail newsletter I want to start. And I’m finding that the words flow better when I’m working on the laptop in the living room, rather than the big desktop with the big monitor in the computer room. A laptop just feels existentially lighter somehow, you know? Freer, when it comes to writing. Anyone else have this experience?

“History is ultimately a moral art.” How true. I guess those conservative Texans, who are doing all kinds of messing with textbooks, aren’t very interested in art after all.