Reflections on the 4th July weekend

In 108 degree F heat, we drove from Huntington Beach to Las Vegas.  Now the cool of a powerful air conditioner surrounds us.  But along the way we marvelled at the traffic jam of cars leaving Las Vegas and headed back to southern California.  It was nearly two hundred miles of solid two-lane traffic.  Yet the local newspaper says visitor statistics are down, and gambling revenues are off 2.5 % from last year.  Seems to me visitor statistics will have to fall at least twenty-five percent before I spend a weekend here that involves a drive back to Los Angeles. 

It is sort of like the Disneyland problem.  I took the boys to Legoland, where most of the rides are small and involve no more than a few minutes in line.  In those few minutes I chatted with other parents and grandparents who like me had taken a solemn oath never to return to Disneyland and the indignity of forty-five minues in line for a five minute ride.  Things are just so damn good in this country that we are getting pissed off avoiding the crowds headed to and from pleasure.

It is the same refrain we saw this evening watching that highly entertaining propaganda machine called FOX News.  They were celebrating the fact that America is not in decline because more people come here than leave.  Somehow the sight of bigots like Ollie North and the fallen of the Bush administration telling me that they love America in spite of the dirty lyrics of most modern songs—a problem they promised to deal with “shortly”–still leaves me fascinated by the program, loving the country, but hating the bigots.  That is what make this the best country in the world.  Even though we may have to flee the bullets from all those freely-obtained guns and loose-cannon biggots for whom happiness would be unifromity in their mold.  Actually I know nobody who owns a gun, or at least admits to it, so I am clearly in a position of privilege? or deprivation? I do own some pretty nasty-lyrics songs, but they are mainly in Italian so the Bushies may leave them alone when they initiate their orgy of censorship.

Talking of running from the crowds.  We watched the 4th July parade in Huntington Beach until the kids got bored.  We took them home and I got on my bike and rode back for the next two hours of a three-hour parade.  This is the thirteenth year I have watched this parade.  Much has changed.  The part that always brings tears to my eyes was sadder still this year.  The first time there were many Pearl Harbor survivors marching proudly along the street.  Each year their numbers decline and this year but a very few were driven by.   We owe them so much and now there are so few to honor.

Conversely the number of fat young kids in the bands has increased.  It too is sad to see them struggle to waddle along lugging a big musical instrument in the heat.  They are just too fat for that kind of thing.  It is good to see they are now of all colors and origins, but still there are too many fats ones for us to be proud of achievements in health.  They would do better standing still in a line for a five minute ride at Disneyland. 

To be fair about health, or is it increasing wealth, the number of people riding bikes to the parade and to the beach for the fireworks and generally all the time around town seems to have increased.  I cannot recall previously seeing fifteen to twenty year old boys and girls on fancy bikes enjoying a fine peddle. They all looked so fit and blond and happy as they passed through the gates of their walled communities where the newspapers report average home prices of $1.2million.  It is good to have the rich lead the way in health and the use of bikes for recreation as well as mobility. 

Like FOX says:  this is a good country; things are going good; a lot more people want to come here than leave; we can and will solve our problems; and we must enjoy that debate and excess that comes with such success.  It is silly to get despondent because of dirty lyrics in songs for the young; traffic jams; long lines; the passing of heroes; fat musicians; and rich kids on expensive bikes.  Rather see these as the reality and symbol of success and the privilege we enjoy of being part of it.  And sit back and enjoy the end of the 4th July weekend, even though you are in a seven-hour traffic-jam stretching from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.