(Fire)Crack-Ho

happy july 4th americans! this is my first july 4th in my perch over lake merritt. wow! this city really cracks on july 4th. i never quite had this vantage point and i can see berkeley and marin's fireworks as well. all but the biggest of SF's are hidden by downtown oaktown. so after several years of spending july 4th with "those who do not like fireworks", trying to not seek them out, i must finally surrender to the fact that i like fireworks. it's not only the colorful blooms in the sky; it's the near simultaneous eruption of celebration that happens across my community. this is readily evident in the explotions of light and sound across the landscape. when else do you have a "visual map" of people all across an entire region celebrating a holiday? i see south SF, and all the eastbay/northbay "crackers". hours after the first of them started i can still hear them echoing from end-tp-end of oakland. it's moving :).

but then i see a local news-cast interviewing people at a local parade. talk is of the iraq war and supporting our troops. no disrespect to our troops but july 4th is not about iraq. it's about why and how the united states of america became an independent nation. it's about the values we thought were important enough to fight for (throughout time). and we won our independence!!!! so today i think we should consider what the US has fought for thoughout our country's history. and what we can do to see that these standards are being upheld. fight-on!!!

cheers!