fourth of july

Last night I had a good Fourth of July (Independence Day) celebration. We had a good spread of food, with pulled pork, bratwurst and potato salad. During the day we set off firecrackers, smoke bombs, cluster bombs and parachutes. During the night we set off all kinds of fountains, rockets, Roman candles, sparklers and buzz bombs.
So was this more about fireworks or an independence day celebration. Our fore fathers did break away from England. They also broke away clean from feudalism and aristocracy. They even inspired the French Revolution. And in the beginning it was a mostly white-man's government. Still we celebrate anyway.
Today I wonder how much of that revolution still seems similar. The father of our country, George Washington, told us to avoid foreign entanglements:

"The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities"

So I had a good time.

As seen by this picture, the day was great.