I spent a few childhood summers on my grandparents farm in Iowa. My grandpa Ruble used to collect old cars and every 4th of July, he would drive one of the cars in the Osceola July 4 parade. We would go and throw candy to all the people (but not too much, we don't want to throw ALL of it). That really is just remembering good times from the past, not really anything to do with patriotism.
While listening to KPFK yesterday, somebody quoted an historian, David Hackett Fischer. He has written a book called
Liberty and Freedom.
I haven't read it yet, but history is always interesting. It deals with U.S. history and what our forefathers- the common people, thought about freedom and how the United States came to be. One of the quotes was from an interview with a soldier from the revolutionary war and said something like this: what we wanted to show those redcoats was that we always thought ourselves as free, and they didn't think we should.
So, that makes me think... are we free. The spirit of our forefathers IS alive today, but not in power today. Check out the book, The Framing of Mumia Abu Jamal by J. Patrick O'Connor. Then listen to a selection: Homeland and Hip- Hop by Immortal Technique on the album Revolutionary Pt.2. He has a new album that dropped on June 24 that I WILL be buying. Stay tuned...
I must conclude with my favorite song of freedom, Redemption Song , by Bob Marley. This version is from his very last concert in 1980, from the city of Pittsburgh, PA. It is the last song on disc 4 of a gem of a CD box set called Songs of Freedom.
