We won’t be celebrating 4th of July this year.
That sounds like such a weighty accusation, such a loaded statement. The truth is, we never celebrate the 4th of July. I’ve never given a damn about fireworks, or blowing shit up. I never cared to put on a patriotic face. For me, the story of America’s Independence has always felt like such a farce, a corny, B-rated flick populated with too many speeches and too many overtly sentimental segues. I know, this is fodder for the patriots to scream I’m anti-American, or some other horseshit. I am not. I don’t believe patriotism means never criticizing your country – I believe you must if it is ever going to live up to its promise. I don’t believe patriotism means you must celebrate the 4th of July.
All in all, I simply don’t buy what they’re selling when it comes to the story of America’s independence. I’m not contesting the basic facts, I see no reason to deny that. It’s simply that there are too many examples of the white-washing of American history, too many examples of our history being turned into patriotic propaganda, for me to take it seriously.
In the past I’ve enjoyed hanging out with friends at bar-b-q’s, but I was there for the conviviality and friendship, and nothing more. I’ll take a day off of work as well. I won’t balk at that. But you won’t find me putting out a flag and celebrating a story that only applies to a portion of the populace of this country.
What I will be doing instead is hanging out with my wife, doing a little reading and writing. Since the high temp today is going to be an amazing 83 degrees, I may take a walk with Erin as well. Later I’ll cook dinner and afterward unwind with a little television or some more reading. By the time the fireworks start I’ll be in bed trying to get a good nights rest before work tomorrow.
This Blog
I’ve begun fleshing out the revamp of this blog. When I started I pretty much threw it together in an effort to get to the writing, but now that I’ve progressed a bit I’m ready to upgrade the skin. My intent is to give it more of a zine type look and feel – more grungy and rough around the edges, like something you might print and hand out to passerby. I started fleshing out the structure of the home page and should be continuing with that over the coming weeks.
Art
Which leads me to the artwork. The new design will rely more on artwork. At least for the homepage where it will serve as a cover of sorts. So this means I’ll be putting more of my free-time focus on creating some graphics. That may impact how much I’m writing, but I’m going to try and make it all happen because that is simply what I would like to do. I already have large portions of the “Ghosts” articles written, at least those that deal with the military, so I have a bit of runway.
Author: Jason Jacobs
Jason Jacobs is an artist, project manager, and frontend web designer living and working in Boise, Idaho. Beyond work he spends his time with family, as well as reading, writing articles for Uhmm, and working on his art. All words and opinions, etc., are his and do not reflect the positions or beliefs of anyone other than himself.