Independence Day

Independence Day is our nation’s greatest secular holiday. It is a commemoration of the birth of our country as we severed ties with England and set our own course as a free people.

It is not a celebration of war, and don’t let the right-wing hijack it for that purpose.

Each Fourth of July, President Bush uses the occasion to talk about the war in Iraq, usually before a military audience. It is yet one more instance where those who have led us into this unjust, illegal conflict effectively commandeer our natural patriotism and turn it into an ugly endorsement of the debacle that has resulted in the deaths of 3567 American soldiers and countless tens of thousands of Iraqis.

This not-so-subtle takeover of the Fourth of July provides the Bush/Cheney regime with another opportunity to smear those who are against the war -- since we all know that in their world if you are in opposition you must be unpatriotic. And, by extension, there is an implication that you don’t support the troops. They will wave their flags on July 4th, and you had better wave yours with them or your very loyalty may be called into question by loudmouth lunatics like Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter.

Well, not on my front lawn!

On the Fourth, I’ll be waving my flag, but I’ll be waving it for this great Republic for which it stands: not the war and violence the Bush crowd celebrates, but the peace and freedom and civilization that is the foundation of the United States of America. I’m not letting them take my holiday away from me.