Independence Day has been cancelled

[death tribble]

No, I am not talking about the film although the Abyss knows it should have been cancelled.

No, Independence Day for the United States of America has been cancelled. You would think, quite sensibly, that this is because of the Pandemic and making people safe using social distancing.

 

Actually this is not the case. The actual reason is that someone, who shall remain nameless, has thrown a temper tantrum due to lack of attendance at a recent rally(?). Consequently they ordered the National Holiday to be cancelled in a fit of pique. They have also cancelled Presidents Day and instead will have a new holiday on the 14th.June instead which it will be mandatory to celebrate or worship on.

 

I offer my condolences to all of you that would have been looking forward to celebrating on this day but that's the way the brownie crumbles.

[Starlord]

Whatever, the important thing is I still got yesterday off....

[Tom Cowan]

have a great June 14: Harry Turtledove day people!  😉

[Pariah]

 

Ladies and gentlemen, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir recorded live at West Point.

[Lord Liaden]

My father liked to call them, 'The Hormone Pinochle Choir." Apropos of absolutely nothing.

[wcw43921]

Let America Be America Again

BY LANGSTON HUGHES

 

Let America be America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

 

(America never was America to me.)

 

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—

Let it be that great strong land of love

Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

That any man be crushed by one above.

 

(It never was America to me.)

 

O, let my land be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

 

(There's never been equality for me,

Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

 

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?

And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

 

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,

I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.

I am the red man driven from the land,

I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—

And finding only the same old stupid plan

Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

 

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,

Tangled in that ancient endless chain

Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!

Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!

Of work the men! Of take the pay!

Of owning everything for one's own greed!

 

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

I am the worker sold to the machine.

I am the Negro, servant to you all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—

Hungry yet today despite the dream.

Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!

I am the man who never got ahead,

The poorest worker bartered through the years.

 

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream

In the Old World while still a serf of kings,

Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,

That even yet its mighty daring sings

In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

That's made America the land it has become.

O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas

In search of what I meant to be my home—

For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,

And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,

And torn from Black Africa's strand I came

To build a "homeland of the free."

 

The free?

 

Who said the free?  Not me?

Surely not me?  The millions on relief today?

The millions shot down when we strike?

The millions who have nothing for our pay?

For all the dreams we've dreamed

And all the songs we've sung

And all the hopes we've held

And all the flags we've hung,

The millions who have nothing for our pay—

Except the dream that's almost dead today.

 

O, let America be America again—

The land that never has been yet—

And yet must be—the land where every man is free.

The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME—

Who made America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,

Must bring back our mighty dream again.

 

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—

The steel of freedom does not stain.

From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,

We must take back our land again,

America!

 

O, yes,

I say it plain,

America never was America to me,

And yet I swear this oath—

America will be!

 

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,

The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,

We, the people, must redeem

The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

The mountains and the endless plain—

All, all the stretch of these great green states—

And make America again!

[Cygnia]

 

[Cancer]

 

[Old Man]

5 hours ago, Pariah said:

 

Ladies and gentlemen, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir recorded live at West Point.

 

From a year ago.  Thank goodness, I was going to be horrified.

[Pariah]

Not to worry. Lady P and I have several friends in the Choir, and all their operations, including their annual summer tour, or canceled way back in March or April. They're not even rehearsing right now.

[unclevlad]

We're getting a chorale here...

 

Not even 9:30...and I've probably heard more fireworks being set off in this area than the prior 7 years I've been here, combined....

 

By a LOT.

 

EDIT:  make that since I moved down here.  All the different apartments and now, the house.  35 years.  

EDIT2:  could be worse.  Could be sober....

[Pariah]

"Look, I celebrate our breakup with fireworks! I blow things up!"

 

 

[Lord Liaden]

It's hard to tell how much of the stupidity currently pervading America starts at the bottom and bubbles up, and how much starts at the top and seeps down. But apparently the gas it gives off is explosive in multiple ways.

[Old Man]

Neighbors behind me are having a party with plenty of aerial fireworks and alcohol and zero masks or social distancing. 
 

But Happy 4th, everyone. Even you furriners on this here forum. 

[tkdguy]

Some people in my neighborhood have been shooting fireworks even before July rolled around. Some idiot even did that at 4 am the other night.

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, Old Man said:

But Happy 4th, everyone. Even you furriners on this here forum. 

 

Thank you. None of the above happened where I was today, which already makes the 4th happy for me.

[Old Man]

They've stopped the fireworks... so they can do outdoor karaoke.  Fml

[unclevlad]

2 hours ago, tkdguy said:

Some people in my neighborhood have been shooting fireworks even before July rolled around. Some idiot even did that at 4 am the other night.

 

Surprisingly, everyone here shut it down by...11 or so?  Missed my save and crashed pretty hard...but wasn't bothered by any noise, which would've been a pain.  From what I saw and heard, tho, people were gathering...the ones I saw, maintaining their distance...but watching each other.  So, everything got shot off together, and at one time.  It might also have been that there wasn't a stadium show, or the like;  the city's display was set up to be seen from home.  So everyone was home the entire time for a change.

 

Of course crashing early also meant, here it is, 3 AM...and I'm awake.  Won't be able to get back to sleep for some time, either...

[Duke Bushido]

4 hours ago, Old Man said:

Neighbors behind me are having a party with plenty of aerial fireworks and alcohol and zero masks or social distancing. 
 

But Happy 4th, everyone. Even you furriners on this here forum. 

 

4 hours ago, tkdguy said:

Some people in my neighborhood have been shooting fireworks even before July rolled around. Some idiot even did that at 4 am the other night.

 

 

 

I find these are pretty easy to break up.  

 

When the fireworks go on sale, I stock up on roman candles.

 

Not only can they be tied to a single fuse, they can be aimed.

 

 

[Cygnia]

 

 

Happy Birthday, Steve Rogers

[death tribble]

I was wondering what I could post this year as the July 4th spoiler and then the virus turned up.

 

I also send friends in the States the same thing. Their reply was you're laughing now, but....

 

I did not know that about Harry Turtledove though 

[Scott Ruggels]

I am proud of my disobedient fellow Citizens, I moved away from los Angeles last year, but before that, I would stand on the roof of my apartment building, with several of my fellow residents, holding a beer, and watching the sky light up in defiance of several bans against fireworks, even before this year.  

https://disrn.com/news/los-angeles-residents-defy-mayors-fireworks-ban-light-up-sky-on-4th-of-july

 

[Matt the Bruins]

Someone set off a fairly major firework over downtown a block away from me last night. I'm certain that was illegal, but it was nice to see one big bloom of fireworks from close up through the big window in my living room.

[massey]

My wife and I have two dogs.  The spazzy little one got hit by the falling pieces of one of our neighbor's fireworks a couple of years ago.  She wasn't hurt, but it scared the hell out of her.  She's been terrified of fireworks ever since.  So this year we took the dogs to my parents' farm out in the country.  No neighbors, no fireworks.

 

It's too bad, because I love fireworks.  But they're not worth our little rat dog having a heart attack.

[Duke Bushido]

And I get up at four AM to go to work.  Fireworks?  Fine. Have a few.  When they run on to two and three in the morning?  Roman candles break that party up pretty effectively.