![I Believe… [Too Much Absence]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1730684696431-9LG56F84KEH4VEPSQ13U/IMG_2287+2.JPG)
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Independence Day Edition
Seeing giant American flags draped across giant crosses as I drive through central Illinois… I love how the irony of crucifying the flag is completely lost on these patriots.
The Reasons Behind the Celebration
“In our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic and political progress as a nation, we all go up or else all go down as one people.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
Loving Your Country is Like Loving Your Child
I love my daughter more than anything. I am devoted to her. I would die to defend her.
But that doesn’t mean I defend or justify every single thing she does. When she tries to claw her mother’s eyes out because she hasn’t peeled a banana fast enough, I let her know that that shit is not acceptable. My love for her motivates me to help her not be an asshole. I want her to succeed at being a worthwhile person. I want her to realize her full potential. Which I’ll again briefly mention is enormous, probably greater than your kids’, if you have them.
This brings me to love of country; patriotism.
A Rescue Call Despite the Odds
What’s the matter, why don’t you know who you are? Wake up, America,
it’s me shaking you by the shoulders like Jim shakes any given guest star
out on the Final Frontier:
Independence Day: The Dance of the Vicious
There are things for us to celebrate but perhaps we should put the party off for a few years while we get our shit together, clean up our own house, and strive to be the country we believed we could be rather than the nation we have become.