2001-07-04 - 11:01 p.m.

What's Independence Day For?

Well, it's the Fourth of July here in America. Hey, it's the Fourth of July everywhere!

On the TV this evening Lily and I were watching the local news, and there was a segment where a guy on the street was asking random people questions about Independence Day. Basically, it was a segment designed to show how ignorant people are about the history of their own country.

Hey, edited video segments don't impress me that much. You have some kid say that the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1976, and then he runs away giggling about how he goofed on the clown with the microphone. Some lady said we fought the Revolutionary War against the French. Hey, it might have been more interesting if we had!

But these people didn't look clever enough to fool the anchorman. They just looked sorta dumb.

But dates and historical trivia is not really what this country is about. I heard an example of what makes the United States different from other countries just a couple days ago.

I can't really give too many details about this, because it is not really my story to tell.

A friend of mine was traveling in India a few months ago, and for some reason the local secret police got it into their collective heads that he was some sort of spy. First they encouraged him to cut his trip short and head home, and then they changed their mind and arrested him at the airport. I'm not going to go into any details, but he spent a very unpleasant couple of days.

After that, they were convinced that he didn't know anything, so they let him go. And he got the hell out of there as fast as he could.

My friend didn't complain or report the incident. He didn’t think he would be believed. He just feels grateful to home, and to still be alive.

My advice for you if you are planning a trip to India: go somewhere else.

And this is just one reason why I love the United States. Stuff like that is not supposed to happen here. Stuff like that is the reason that our restless ancestors got the hell out of Europe or where ever they were. Maybe we should make a point of telling this to our children, so they don't wind up turning America into the sort of place we'd want to try to get away from ourselves.