In the United States, Independence Day on July 4th is a big celebration with parades, fireworks, community picnics, and more. However, the inundation of patrioric zeal strikes me as entirely contrary to the event it celebrates. In 1776, a bunch of lawyers, businessmen, and landowners ratified a document to secede from an overbearing government.
They were a bit late to the revolutionary game, since fighting started spontaneously in April of 1775, but the credit still goes to this anniversary of the signing of what is really a decent statement of liberty in response to governmental overreach. It isn't perfect, but nothing is, and its charges against the British government still ring true today against the United States of today.
The strage part, then, is the religious veneration of the military and police, the stump speeches from politicians, and the pledges of allegiance. The spirit of independence is wholly absent from In Dependence Day.
So instead of patriotic songs, sarcasm is the order of the day. Instead of Miley Cyrus' Party in the USA, I have a different song in mind today:
