Topic: Turn Your Back This 4th of July

[Glock32]

Solid. Totally describes my sentiment for several years now. I've mentioned a few times before how, in particular, the rousing crescendo at the end of the Star Spangled Banner just downright turns my stomach: "The Laaaaand of the Free, and the Hoooome of the Brave."  What a grotesque profanity, an absurd pantomime. The author of this piece is right, in that at the very least we must deny them the sanction of their victim. The people in this country to a large extent suffer from mass Stockholm Syndrome. Fireworks and grilling hot dogs as if this is still the same America will only help keep the Stockholm Syndrome going.

http://ericpetersautos.com/2013/06/27/turn-your-back-this-fourth-of-july/

In a few days, we will all have an opportunity to peacefully inflict a major psychological blow on the rapidly coalescing police state by the simple but powerful act of refusing to play along with the absurd pantomime on the 4th of July that we live in an even nominally free country – one with the rule of law, an operative Constitution and respect for individual rights. One that isn’t a thugocracy.

We can turn our backs on the flag. Decline to participate when urged to cheer and sing. No fireworks. No barbeques.

We can sit down – and bow our heads.

We can mention the unmentionable: That there is no longer any meaningful limit to the power of the government over our lives. No line beyond which it may not tread. That it lies, spies and tyrannizes.

We can admit to ourselves the shoddy – and frightening – reality bubbling up all around us.

By so doing, we can shatter the illusion that this government operates with anything remotely approximating our consent. This is absolutely essential. The 4th of July pantomime requires that we deny the obvious – that we instead pretend we’re free people living in a free country; one in which the government is accountable to the people, one in which the government is limited by law. One in which people can’t simply be dragooned into prisons without due process, held incommunicado, tortured. A country with a president who doesn’t have kill lists – or use the instruments of state power to punish and intimidate his political opponents. One in which citizens must be suspected of a crime before their personal correspondence is filched through and recorded for later use against them. One in which a traveler is free from arbitrary and random searches of his person and effects. One in which the attorney general of the United States isn’t able to get away with providing guns to gangs or brazenly lie about his use of the power of his office to go after political “enemies” rather than pursue justice.

All these things are everyday realities. And the reality is that the America we once celebrated on the Fourth of July is gone, replaced by something dark and ominous.

It is painfully obvious – so why pretend otherwise?

More to the point, why should we celebrate this ugly transformation?

Mourning is what’s called for.

If we decline to play along – and we still have this option, for the moment – we can shatter the idea that all of the foregoing loathsomeness is done with our approval. We can redefine the relationship between ourselves and the government in an honest way. No more pretending we’re free. No more pretending we’re protected by the rule of law – and not ruled over by a thug caste – a mafia – that does literally whatever it wants, to anyone, at any time – without any real consequences whatsoever. None of this requires elaboration. Everyone knows it to be true. The Constitution is no longer even payed lip service to. It is a sick joke.

We are in the position of a battered spouse who is expected to rouge her bruises and tell her friends that – whoops! – she fell down the stairs. But hubby is a swell guy.

I say, to hell with that.

I say, let’s not give them the cover they still apparently crave. I say, let’s out them – by openly displaying our bruises and no longer denying how we got them. Let the world see the true nature of the relationship between us and those who rule us.

China had its Tiananmen Moment – when one brave man stood up to a column of tanks and changed history by the simple act of refusing to play along. By peacefully forcing the thugocracy’s hand. It faced a hard choice: Either it could either run that man down in full view of live TV, crush him under the treads of a T-72 and thereby give real-life and incontrovertible evidence of the true nature of the relationship of the Chinese government vis-a-vis the average Chinese. Or it could back down – and thereby be compelled to alter the relationship in a way at least somewhat more favorable to the average Chinese.

We have a similar opportunity coming up. A chance to confront the police state by refusing to pretend it’s not a police state. By coming to grips with what it is.

And what it is is nothing to celebrate.

I urge you to join me this July 4th in turning your back on the flag – on all grotesque homilies to a country that no longer exists, because of the government which does exist – and which desperately wants us to keep on playing patty cake and pretending that it doesn’t.

[trapeze]

Well, there won't be any fireworks in our area due to the wildfires that are consuming the forests so at least I will be spared that sorry spectacle.

I do agree with this opinion piece.

But I don't think the country is ready for this yet. I don't think there is enough suffering by enough people yet to realize the truth of it. I think that the timing isn't quite right. Someone could act that way and way too many would not understand it.

But that time is coming.

[Alphabet Soup]

I had no plans to celebrate and this piece just gives voice to how I feel. I haven't felt this disconnected, so disenfranchised from my country since my angry teen years. Then as now there was just about nothing my country could do right, but they had no difficulty at all doing wrong.

I was completely alienated from the concept of "We the People" and frankly couldn't GAS about anyone or anything. My concerns are greater now but the sense of dread, of disgust, and of disparagement is back in spades.

So It'll just be another workday for me - one that I can stick my employer for holiday double-pay.

[Libertas]

This is a toughie for me.  I agree with the sentiments expressed in the article.  I've said numerous times and cited numerous examples of how far from the Founders vision we've strayed...this is not the America we once knew.  In fact the the America we once knew really only existed in theory even back then, the sappers have done so much damage to the Republic over so many years it is only now in these latter days where we see destruction being wrought at a pace never seen before and on a scale never imagined in our worst nightmares.  Being in a family with many military members and holding many conservative and traditional values...turning our backs on displays of patriotism (Old Republic patriotism specifically) and the flag is akin to swearing in church...it's not even considered a possibility.  But realizing there has been a severe and apparently irrevocable break from all form and substance of the Old Republic makes declarations such as made in this article not only possible but thinkable.  Old ways die hard.  I may not perform the requisite recommendations, but I will not fault or criticize those who do.  But those closing words in the Star Spangled Banner ring empty to me now...we no longer live in the "land of the free, and the home of the brave", we are enslaved by the state, subject to its wanton and capricious whim, and too many are cowed into obedience and fooled into thinking they are free, that they have "inalienable rights" and any semblance of the liberty and virtue granted by God to all true free men is true only if they live by those beliefs.  I may blow off some fireworks, I do so not to honor any present day silly notions of national pride, I do so as a demonstration that what our Founders declared in the Declaration of Independence - "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", that is my guide star.  Domestic enemies may have perverted the nation, they have not perverted me.

[Weisshaupt]

Michelle said this same thing to me yesterday.. and she had not seen nor heard of this article. Its how we all feel.  Our country is dead, and pretending this monstrosity is anything like her is a sick joke, one none of us have any intention of participating in.

[trapeze]

Okay, fine, but do please remember those who are serving our country (even though they also serve a complete dumbass as CIC) on this holiday. They have no say in what they are ordered to do but they signed up to serve the country and to protect the Constitution. If we can't (with a clear conscience and a straight face) pay tribute to the country as founded we should at least remember those who sacrifice for it.

[LadyVirginia]

Okay, fine, but do please remember those who are serving our country (even though they also serve a complete dumbass as CIC) on this holiday. They have no say in what they are ordered to do but they signed up to serve the country and to protect the Constitution. If we can't (with a clear conscience and a straight face) pay tribute to the country as founded we should at least remember those who sacrifice for it.

 



I heard about a church near me that's having a Independence Day service so my daughter and I are going to that.  And I admit I'm going to watch the fireworks that night. I love fireworks. 

We watch them from my mom's condo balcony. Attendance has changed over the years.  When we first started going to her place we had to get there early to park because her complex borders the park they shoot them from.  And tons of people were picnicking and hanging out.  Then it seemed to become more and more Hispanic. Then for the last few years there have been fewer and fewer people. We don't have to arrive early for a parking place any more. 

[Libertas]

Another worthy pursuit to consider - http://www.alt-market.com/articles/1576-true-defiance-i-challenge-you-to-survive-the-coming-collapse

[Pandora]

Another worthy pursuit to consider - http://www.alt-market.com/articles/1576-true-defiance-i-challenge-you-to-survive-the-coming-collapse

Yep.  Just what Nothing more than we've been discussing for ...... how long now?

[John Florida]

  All tomrrow means to me is a day off with the wife,other than that this year there's nothing else.How sad is it that good Americans feel that way?

[Predator Don]

  All tomrrow means to me is a day off with the wife,other than that this year there's nothing else.How sad is it that good Americans feel that way?

We are not doing anything tomorrow, other than maybe catching The Lone Ranger. It's pool time.

[IronDioPriest]

I'm not turning my back. I'm going to enjoy the day. Red White and Blue baby...

...afternoon playing on the water with the family; watching the joy on my little girl's face when she catches sunfish after sunfish; beaching the boat to grill some bratwurst; drinking a few beers; watching the pontoon-boat parade, and catching candy from the teen beauty queens; watching fireworks from the boat with my family beside me... and reading the Declaration of Independence to my wife and children.

I won't give up on America until they put a bullet in me.

[trapeze]

I took my family to our small town parade this morning.

And I did turn my back.

When the local Democrat party came past us I stood up and turned my back on them. Many others did the same.

[IronDioPriest]

I took my family to our small town parade this morning.

And I did turn my back.

When the local Democrat party came past us I stood up and turned my back on them. Many others did the same.

That's awesome.

[IronDioPriest]

This is wonderful...

Harvard Study: 4th of July Events ONLY Help Republicans

[Glock32]

[robins111]

Regardless of the issues in the political forum in your country, the ongoing problems that appear like bad pennies.. let me take this opportunity to wish my American friends... Happy 4th guys.. its a honor to live beside you...

[John Florida]

Regardless of the issues in the political forum in your country, the ongoing problems that appear like bad pennies.. let me take this opportunity to wish my American friends... Happy 4th guys.. its a honor to live beside you...

 Were proud to have you as a friend!