Independence Day

Today was the celebration of Independence Day. In the move Dazed and Confused there is a scene where the history teacher is reminding her students (serious on the last day of school in 1976) to remember the 200th birthday of the country. She said, “Remember the reason we are celebrating our 200th Birthday is because a bunch of white, slave owning farmers did not want to pay their taxes.” That statement does not do justice to the cause for independence, or why the revolutionary war was fought. Thomas Paine authored a short essay called Common Sense. This essay help whip colonists (soon to be Americans) into a fervor about the British Rule of the colonies. America sits poised on another revolution. The country survived the Revolutionary War, the Southern Rebellion (aka the Civil War), the industrial revolution, the sexual revolution, the computer revolution. The question is, will we survive the moral revolution? (I like open ended questions, so if everyone could please submit a 1000 word essay (typed and double spaced) on the moral revolution I would appreciate it!)

On a smaller level of intellectual discussion I saw a house that had a PINL toilet in the front yard with flowers inside it. I tried to get Amy to take a picture, but we missed it. I question if it is not just a fundraiser. It did reminded my a Stanley Marsh III. He has the group of high school/college kids that run around Amarillo planting signs that are very unique. He, with the assistance of the Ant Farm they created the 10 car called Cadillac Ranch. His antics are famous. He once locked up the grandson of his family rival in a chicken coup naked for several hours. He claimed it was because the kid was vandalizing his signs. (The following link has the introduction to a Texas Monthy article about the fued. http://www.texasmonthly.com/preview/1996-03-01/feature )

(I am clean, I had to take a shower so that I did not fall asleep at the key board and write something like this, “iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii…”)

On a frustrating level when we returned home this evening there was a message from Amy’s father that said, “Hello everyone, I just wanted to call and tell you that we were back. I am sure that you are out popping fireworks. Talk to you later, dad.” One would presume that he had not just returned from the grocery store. We think that he went to the Dominican Republic, because he told Amy’s sister that he was going there sometime. The sad part is that he did not tell Amy of his plans to leave the country. I told her she should call him and say, “We got your message, where did you go anyway, to never told me you were leaving?”