July 04, 2005
The 4th
As an immigrant to this country, the 4th of July was always one of my favorite holidays. It's the birthday of the greatest country the world has ever seen. That makes it even sadder to see what we've done to her in the last twenty years or so. McCain-Feingold, the "real ID", the recent "takings" decision by the SCOTUS, the RICO act, and a myriad of other actions that we've allowed our government to engender is taking our freedoms one by one. Take this 4th to really THINK about what we are celebrating, and steel yourself to fighting the battle to take it back.
On a lighter note, I want to wish my father a happy 74th Birthday. He loves to tell the story of his 27th birthday. He had just moved his family the previous September to a new country, where he didn't know a soul, didn't know the language, and had no job waiting for him. What he DID have was a wife and two young children to support, and a dream of providing them a better life than they could have had in the Netherlands, which was still trying to recover from the ravages of WW11 at the time. When it got dark on that first 4th of July in his new homeland, the sky was lit up with a great display of fireworks.
He thought they were celebratiog his birthday! WHAT A COUNTRY!
Great story! He must have felt quite overwhelmed!
Posted by: Andy T. at July 5, 2005 08:11 AMIt's nice to enjoy a co-celebration!! Better that than having your birthday hijacked by feeble-minded and badly mistaken eco-weenies - like my wife's, lost in her childhood to "Earthday." Now that that its founder is dead, can we please have it back?
Posted by: -keith in mtn. view at July 5, 2005 01:20 PMThat's an awesome story. ^_^ Happy 74th to your dad!
Our first thoughts on arriving on arriving were quite different. We migrated from Barbados (population 96% black) to an Australia only just ending its White Australia policy. There I was, five years old, in this sea of newness, looking at my mother mytisfied and disoriented asking, 'Where are all the black people? Don't they have any black people?' I was quite upset and it took some getting used to.
South Australia was also very dry in comparison and I distinctly remember telling my parents that the trees here were 'all dry up and dead looking'. I can appreciate the beauty of the Australian landscape now, but at the time it was all too new and strange. Maybe I'd have felt differently if there were fireworks greeting us, haha.
Posted by: chosha at July 9, 2005 04:15 AMChosha:
I'm old enough now to remember the policy you speak of. I was in South East Asia at the time.
It must have been very difficult for you. Praise to you and your family for the determination to head into the unknown and make a go of it.