Celebrating The Spirit of America

As someone who travels (in my mind at least) from one reality to another like changing hats, and as an animist who could (in my mind at least) have a conversation with an animal or a hatrack; knowing the difference between fantasy and reality is as quintessential a survival skill as knowing how to find water when traveling the Sahara.  Its not a matter of being "crazy" its a matter of knowing who you are and where you are.

So when people tell me that they can't celebrate the 4th right now, I ask...which America?

If you mean the United States of America in the Darkest Timeline (it isn't, I mean there are realities with zombies and killer robots or the great Mime Virus, but it's a signpost travelers recognize), then you have reason to be cynical.  The empire is in decline, and doesn't know it is dead.  It elected (ELECTED no less) its Nero and Caligula all wrapped up in one.  It's alliances are crumbling and it has actually done things that would make the nazis blush.  Sure the nazis gassed and killed children box cars but they never made up whole concentration camps JUST for kids.

America has problems.

But there Americas worth celebrating.  There are a lot of ways to get there; remember in The Nightmare Before Christmas, there was a door to the 4th of July, or the big Ben whale with the clock on its tale in the Rudolph story.  There are places where the IDEALS of America exist.  The America of Cinematic Glory; which is much closer to reality in Terra than Earth ever would be. 

In this America; the cops arrest the bad guys and help the good guys.  They uphold the constitution and the ideals for which it stands including liberty and justice for all.  That's worth celebrating.

In this America, the American soldier stands for liberty and has fought to uphold democracy and to free countries under the yoke of tyranny.  That's worth celebrating.

In this America, the constitution is a document that stands for freedom with restraint; the separation of powers and the judicious prohibition of power and its abuse thereof.  That's worth celebrating.

In this America, a country full of innovation and relentless economic opporutinity for immigrants that gives everyone a fair shake and a chance through hard work to pull themselves up from their bootstraps to go from Rags to Riches.  That's worth celebrating.

Fireworks that don't frighten animals but that explode in wonder and fire to help us remember a revolution for all (not just rich, white, land owning farmers); that's worth celebrating.

Family values; about a nation that celebrates all kinds of families and all kinds of marriages and people coming together with picnics and apple pie and potato salad and hotdogs and burgers on the grill.  That's worth celebrating.

Hard work and daily lives interwoven together and people that work to help each other in all the ways that matter.  That's worth celebrating.

There are Americas I believe in; not just the spirit of America but even the America of the Best Timeline...where Gore won twice, then Obama, then Bernie Sanders.  His likely successor will be Elizabeth Warren.  I believe in an america of econimc justice and innovation that makes peace with its mentally ill minority and quietly puts them in the reservations they belong in. 

But make no mistake; this America worth celebrating is right next to all the other empires in the rubbish bin of history; all the things worth celebrating that are British with cool hats and victorian england and tea and funny mustaches and silly walks, or Rome with great roads and shining military parades and soldiers with broom hats.  But be careful walking around those realms because they are not that far from empires that have no spirit worth celebrating at all but are just as fictionalized like Soviet Russia or the 3rd Reich or North Korea.

There are americas worth celebrating, and I celebrate them but a traveler is wise to know where they are and what they are doing.  Happy traveling.