Left Coast Observatory

It being the beginning of July we'll soon be celebrating the Declaration of Independence. What it means around here is barbecues, fireworks, and maybe a parade. I've also managed to get Monday off, so that makes a nice four-day weekend for me. The downside of so much time off is that there'll be that much more work to get done on Wednesday when I finally get back on the job.

I don't know who started the idea of parading, but I imagine it must have been pretty early in civilization. Maybe even before that: can you imagine hunters coming into camp with their kill? Or gatherers coming home with the harvest? But it's generally the paraders who are being honored and the lookers-on applauding them. I'm not much of one for parades. The last ones I enjoyed were years ago at Mardi Gras in New Orleans. It was much more lively than the usual boring march.

Barbecues I believe came to us from the Caribbean (at least the word does-- it's hard to imagine that most cooking wasn't done this way before pots and pans came along). I like the food and the informality of it. I don't like the flies, the bees and the ants. The wind can be annoying, too. But overall this is the best thing about summer holidays: a picnic or backyard barbecue with plenty of good food and good company.

Fireworks come in two sizes: humongous ones done by highly paid experts for the crowds and little ones shot off by neighborhood kids outside your bedroom window in the middle of the night. While I do enjoy the look of a well-done firework, I pretty much get the idea after a few are set off. Since I'm not partial to crowds either, I tend to avoid the big firework spectacles put on by the local government.

Now the squibs shot off by the locals are a more intimate matter. I've done my share of them when I was young, but have since abandoned the practice. Like any reformed person, I'm especially sensitive to those who cling to the vice I've given up. So the noise, the smell, the mess left behind by people's personal fireworks shows irritate me. The trash from last year's gunpowder orgy still litters the ground and now I'll have a new layer to look at. Charming.

Lest we forget, we have the immortal words of the Declaration:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

That is what makes the Fourth of July a holiday worthy of special respect.