I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy
A Yankee Doodle, do or die;
A real-life nephew of my Uncle Sam
Born on the Fourth of July
“Yankee Doodle Boy” by George M. Cohan
This coming Monday is Independence Day, more commonly referred to as July Fourth. This is probably the more appropriate reference because our spirit of independence is all but lost.
The notion that America represents a “shining city on a hill” and stands as an example to the world has been obliterated.
The city is still there, but its infrastructure has been eaten away by termites to such an extent that it may soon be condemned and abandoned.
The notion expressed by Ronald Reagan that “there was some divine plan that placed this great continent between two oceans to be sought out by those who were possessed of an abiding love of freedom and a special kind of courage” sounds almost naïve. Some would even call the notion bigoted.
If you Google “Independence Day,” the top result is the imdb.com listing for a sci-fi film in which space means destroying the White House and the U.S. Capitol. It figures.
Good thing the gang of boneheads who showed up at the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, did not have a death ray like those aliens did. Trump might still be president as well as the reigning Emperor of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Were the events of Jan. 6 the threat to our Republic that some claim it was?
Frankly, I don’t know.
On some days, I’m convinced it was one of the ugliest days in our nation’s history, yet on others, it reminds me of your average Black Friday at Walmart. You decide for your
You decide for yourself.
The entire event has become a political tool at this point anyway. MSNBC claims it was even worse than Jan. 6, 1929, when King Alexander I of Yugoslavia abolished that country’s constitution, prorogued its parliament and made himself dictator.
Fox News, on the other hand, downplays the events of Jan. 6 as if it was just a light-hearted production of “Twelfth Night” that went a little haywire. (Twelfth Night is the Christian Epiphany traditionally celebrated on Jan. 5 or 6.)
Speaking of “Twelfth Night,” which is Shakespeare’s best play, in my opinion, the comedy seems particularly relevant in 2022.
If you’re unfamiliar with it, let me fill you in.
It essentially begins when a woman named Viola washes up on the shore of Illyria.
Viola disguises herself as a man (Cesario) and becomes one of Duke Orsino’s servants. She falls for the noble duke, but he is already in love with a woman named Olivia.
Viola, who has transitioned into Cesario for the time being, is sent to tell Olivia how much the duke loves her. But Olivia falls in love with Viola (Cesario). Comic hijinks ensue, of course.
English audiences of the time never heard the term transgender, but to a certain extent Shakespeare had hit upon something that would blossom into a full-blown mess 500 years later.
I wonder what Shakespeare would think about using plural pronouns for individuals. As for me, I can’t quite get there. If you’re a man and you want to be called “she,” I can do that. But until you clone yourself, you’ll not get the plural “they” or “them” out of my mouth or on the pages.
I’ve been a writer too long to give up my confounded pronoun definitions without a fight.
Just leave me out of the transgender debate. I’m utterly confused by the whole thing anyway.
Nearly as much as I’m confused by the reactions to the SCOTUS decision to return the question of abortion rights to each state.
Whatever happened to the doctrine of “Safe, Legal and Rare.” I could live with that.
But now it’s become “Safe, Legal and Shut Up.”
The diametric line that has always divided those on either side of the issue has been moved as far left as it can be moved.
I can’t go there with you, and I was once firmly in the pro-choice camp. Not now.
I once dated a woman who had ended a pregnancy with an abortion. She was perhaps the smartest and most insightful woman I have ever dated, but she carried a burden of guilt from that abortion that made her nearly an emotional cripple.
If you’re going to contend that a woman’s right to choose should be the only consideration, then you are also contending that unborn children have no rights at all. That is the unuttered part of your statement that must follow it, that cannot help but follow it.
Is this the best we can do? Have we become so dehumanized that the discussion ends with a simplistic bromide like “My Body, My Choice.”
I won’t go there with you.
But I’m just another Baby Boomer watching the Shining City on a Hill crumble beneath the jaws of termites.
Happy Independence Day!