This is the fifth time in my life that I have been outside of the United States on its birthday. Three of the Fourths were spent in France, one in the middle of the Yucatan Channel and now high on the hill in Potrerillos Arriba, Panama.
My family actually had a part in the creation of the legend of the Fourth of July. My maternal and paternal forebears came to America’s shores in the 1630s. It is legend in the family that one member actually took part in the original Boston Tea Party. I wonder what he’d think of today’s lunatics who have adopted the Tea Party name for their own warped ideas of what America should be. And where were they when George (putting the W into AWOL) Bush and the Republithugs were spending money like drunken sailors (my apologies to drunken sailors everywhere)? These slugs didn’t show up until a person of color moved into the White House. It is important for us to remember that it wasn’t conservatives who fought for America’s independence. Conservatives are, by the very definition of the word, opposed to change. The conservatives of the time of the American Revolution were known as Tories!
Today’s Tea Party Patriots scream that they “want our country back.” Did they actually lose it? And where would they take it back too? Back to singing “God Save the Queen” instead of:
One More Good Adventure 