243 years have gone by since a small group of people in a corner of a large empire declared themselves free from domination by a distant elite and government.

This 4th of July celebration is being co-opted as a personal celebration of a small-minded third-rate hustler from New York. How we got to this point is all in the history books, from which we can extract a version of history that is compatible with one’s general outlook, education, intelligence, aptitudes, abilities, proclivities and interests. All those are the variations on the basic premise of people doing their best (by God), to live with a set of principles that are skewed towards fairness, equality, tolerance and compassion.

A celebration of a liar, cheat and thief, I know the type very well as I have been all three myself, I also know that it need not be a permanent condition.  However, it does require a degree of self-awareness and contrition to change it.

A “Celebration” that he has aimed at himself, all the while co-opting the heart and all that is best of the great American experiment and ongoing improvement exercise that is the U.S.

AND is also those who have given their lives, through death, commitment and career; so that this Commander-in-Chief, as he likes to style himself, can act like a Dictator. A small-time one, at that.

A time of mourning for a dying dream is what this July 4th 2019 signifies to me. A celebration of corruption and ignorance that ushers in the end of the Great Experiment.

I have tried hard to keep this type of opinionation to myself, so I’m ambivalent as to its usefulness or necessity and can offer no cure to the problem which this 4th of July is emblematic of. We have the elections, but the powerful forces that set things up for the on-going bufoonery keep us content by catering to our shallower greeds and delusions. Such is life. It always changes into opportunity if I can continue to look up, rather than down.

Ultimately the True refuge

Lies within, and Its true Nature

Does not calibrate the Things

Of the world by our Standards.

Thankfully, that is the Way.