It’s Independence Day. I’m going to pick a few buckets of blackberries and then I’m driving up to see my daughter and help her clean out her closet.

You know what this means, don’t you. . . I’m going to score some clothes!

We used to go all-out for over-the-counter fireworks; my son and his friends were crazy about them. They were too young to buy them, so I did that little service for them, smiling sincerely at the clerk while I signed the document that assured the federal government that I wasn’t going to USE the fireworks; I was just buying them so I could look at them. It was legal to buy them, but illegal to use them in any way that involved a lighted match.

I’m not going to say that there were no accidents involving fireworks in my back yard, but I did used to have TWO cherry trees back there.

And I think everybody’s deck and sidewalk should have scorch marks on them; it tells people that once upon a time, kids lived here.

I do not like the loud “bangs,” but I do love the spectacle in the sky. My ability to suffer fools decreases with each passing day, so I try to avoid crowds where there might be fools.

The Bible is harder on fools than on evil people, to which I say, YESS. Evil people can reform; fools stay stupid all their lives, and bring everyone around them down, as well.

I do not believe that Americans take the Fourth of July seriously enough, any more. It used to be huge deal, with entire communities taking part: leaders read the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence aloud as the audience recited in their heads along with him – yes, everyone used to be required to memorize important documents! Memorizing things was considered good exercise for the brain. Now, we’ve got kids who don’t know their own middle names, and wouldn’t know the second line to a nursery rhyme if they were offered cash for it. Sad, sad, and very, very bad. (I seriously believe that children who don’t know a dozen nursery rhymes by heart before they ever set foot in any level of school have been raised poorly, and that their parents are fools.) (Don’t get me started about stupid parents; you might not like what will happen.)

Independence Day is important. It should remind us of the many things we take for granted that citizens of other countries would give anything to have.

It should remind us of how our nation began, and what it stands for, and why we should never take any part of our freedoms for granted. It should make us remember to be grateful.

I’m happy that so many people want to live here and enjoy the freedom we offer; however, I do not believe we should be the ones who adapt. If someone moves here, that someone should do all the adapting. I firmly believe that. If they come here but refuse to adapt, why did they come here in the first place? I would NEVER expect another country to adapt its ways to mine; it would be my responsibility to do all the changing. I could do my own stuff at home. In public, I would adapt.

Independence Day is one of my favorite movies, and, corny as it may be, I love this speech by the President, portrayed by Bill Pullman.

And how many of us remember Ronald Reagan’s speech to the U.N. on Sept. 21, 1987:

“In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.”

I believe we ARE facing a universal threat right now, and that the rest of us need to recognize and join forces against it. We need to do whatever it might take, to alleviate this threat, for it seeks to wipe all decent people off the face of the earth. This is no different from an attack by evil aliens. My belief might be very politically incorrect, but when have I ever cared about that?

Never, that’s when. It’s this emphasis on political correctness that has allowed many evils to become powerful, and many important things to be shoved under the rug.

Any belief system that can’t hold up under questioning is not a viable belief system. Any person whose sensibilities are offended by questions about his/her beliefs, and who can’t abide other people’s beliefs, and who don’t wish to have anybody else’s beliefs demonstrated in any way, are themselves the very fools who deserve the punishments fools have ultimately gotten for a thousand years.

I don’t like fools. Nope, not a bit. They’re just so, so, so. . . . foolish.

Mamacita, Scheiss Weekly