Little Bill

Here in New York City, it’s a grey and chilly Fourth of July. It’s so easy to draw a corollary between the chilly drippy weather and the fact that here we are celebrating our “independence.” Heh, right. Our independence.

When was the last time you felt you actually lived in the home of the free, land of the brave? In the country whose elected officials has not, in a very long time, so blatantly acted more in their own best interests rather than that of the people whom they represent, how can we be proud to be Americans?

I was speaking with my friend Mike the other day about all of this, and how all of this open discussion, people exposing the government for the who they really are in the media amounts to very little. What does this say about my generation as compared to my parents generation? Where they got up and marched and fought for change and clashed with the police to get their point across, all we do is laugh at The Daily Show?

Don’t get me wrong, the show has the right idea. The fact that common sense isn’t common anymore, and pointing out how ridiculous it has become, however what are we doing about it? This is the problem! No one’s actually standing up and saying, “Cut the SHIT and HELP us! We’re Americans! We put you in those seats! DO THE RIGHT THING!!”

What makes you proud to be an American? Do your family values include morbid obesity, WWE, and Subway Restaurant advertisements on the radio demonstrating different ways to cram that oversized sub into your mouth?

I don’t know if I’m proud to be an American, but I’m behaving like one. Instead of doing the right thing, I’m going to go and watch as the heavens storm and paint the skies grey as the bombs burst in the air and be a good little consumer with my shiny new iPhone, my shiny new Canon 30d and the promise of Transformers on the horizon. Even I’m a hypocrite.