I don’t celebrate July 4th.

I want to, and hope I will be able to again someday…but not yet…

I have this opinion, that if our founding fathers were walking the days, out and about, they would be appalled at what they see: simply put, the unnecessary suffering of so many, to benefit the simple greed of the few, a government run amok, a modern day oligarchy.

And then, when people want to reign in said government run amok, they only seem to want to do so to benefit those who are ruining what this country once tried to stand for, instead of doing so to help the people. Freedom, independence, community, benevolence and care…these are the things once practiced here. Take a look at those who shout the loudest, who refuse to listen…chances are, they care more about a corporation and their money, than they do an individual and their dreams…and that hurts us all.

Are we a community, a country, living and breathing as an organic body?

Or are we walking out armed by bullshit law, propaganda, and lobbyists…in the name of God, Greed and Goliath?

My views on independence day aren’t everybody’s independence day…no worries. But for some of us, when we read a certain Declaration of Independence or Thomas Paine, or when we read Thoreau and the Bill of Rights, we believe in what these writings have to teach us…and not only when we are watching a Nike advertisement or a political commercial for whatever the fuck Bobby Jindal, David Vitter, British Petroleum and Ken Feinberg have decided are the latest facts…

It’s the Fourth of July, independence day, so we think as we like…and the more I think, the more I’m free, and the more I’m willing to pay for these freedoms so many politicians are so quick to leave behind…the American community, and our brothers live under a bridge, our sisters live in a woman’s shelter and our kids are all trying to get grants, to get an education, to join those who might bring down those who would slight them, slight us, and while proclaiming trite slogans under corporate banners, slight the idea of America…

All at the expense of those who want to really believe.

I once saw Ani Difranco at the House of Blues in New Orleans, just as I saw her at the Congress Theater in Chicago, the Warfield in San Francisco, the Eagles Club in Milwaukee and the Paramount in Seattle…she speaks truth, unfettered and has for twenty years…so enjoy, there simply ain’t no one else like her…a part time resident of New Orleans, a part time resident of Buffalo…and a full time resident of the United States, no matter what some politicians, if they really listened to what she had to say, might want you to think…

So, I don’t believe much in heroes, an overused term and when asked who my heroes might be, I usually feign ignorance…but in honor of Independence Day, I’ll admit it…here’s one:

“Can’t sit on my porch and smoke a jay
and remember how peaceful life can be
but all night long are a bunch of pushers
selling drugs right there on my TV
drugs that whether or not i buy
are gonna end up in my water supply
along with who knows what else, who knows when,
just gotta take a deep breath and drink it in

around here there’s one thing people know
it’s that government ain’t there for you, it’s all for show
and I’m trying to tell them it don’t have to be so
but I can understand that their confidence is low
cos round here the people’re so high they can’t see
over the tops of the tall pine trees
down to the mouth of the Mississippi

oh, blood ignited in a blighted sky
oh, blood on the water like we all could die
blood in the reeds glistening in the sun
blood on our hands, each and everyone,
here in the calm before the wars
when the earth shrugs us off like dinosaurs
here in the sunset days of yore
the first signs washing ashore

******
goddess, come and lift us here in deepest Louisiana
in the gut, where hunches come from
a message goes out loud as it can

******
you’d have thought we’d have come more far somehow
since the changing of the guard and all
i mean dude could be FDR right now
and instead he’s just shifting his weight
the disappointment is a knockout blow
filmed in torturous slow-mo
oh “hope”, please come where i can see
don’t let the poison get the best of me

well, truth is for telling, truth is foretold
truth is for those with the guts to behold
we got vampires down here in Louisiana
we need voodoo dolls, we need talisman
we need wooden crosses set alight
we need harbingers riding thru the night
we need fountain pens, we need whale harpoons
to overthrow the oil tycoons

cos there’s no fish in the water, no birds in the sky
no life in the soil, no end to the lie
no time like the present and it’s passing us by
but it’s never too late, never too late to try
cuz if we all had to change, we all just would
and we would move closer and that would be good
and we would buy local and we would buy less
and we would realize that wasn’t our happiness
no, that wasn’t our happiness…”

Have a nice day and be well…