Sad 4th

Muthah is very sad tonight. I just watched my 1992 VHS of the Cincinnati Pops and chorus in their 4th of July concert at River Bend. I realized that in these 15 years I have almost completely lost my patriotism. I got tears in my eyes when they played all the patriotic music, but I have lost so much in the last 15 years, that it all just made me very sad. I realized that my husband was alive to watch that concert with me--he died a year later in August. I have lost my best friend of 40 years, Jane, in that time period. Back surgery has lost me much of my mobility, and there is no way I could go to Marquette for the celebration--people are rude, and despite my walker, they bump into me. I don't really have any idea what the average Joe thinks we're celebrating--it's just another day off to drink a lot of beer and watch fireworks. Sometimes I really wish we were still a British colony, because all those freedoms in the Declaration and Constitution and by-laws are rapidly disappering, thanks to King George W. At least as a part of the British empire we just might have universal health care and we could get rid of crooked leaders with just a vote of no confidence. It's also sad not to have family nearby for a cook-out.

I did pick up one interesting thing from the concert. When Irvin Berlin wrote GOD BLESS AMERICA, he had no show to put it in, so he put it on a drawer. Kate Smith asked him to write something patriotic for her to use as a theme song, so he gave it to her. The interesting thing is that he made no money on it. When he gave it to her, he signed away all royalties to the song to the Boy Scouts. Wonder how many scouts know that???

muthah