![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fewer fireworks, more thoughts
Jul. 5th, 2004 08:41 amHappy Belated Fourth of July, to those of you who celebrate it.
Went day camping yesterday. Visited Fitzroy Park, a teeny little one-hour drive from Ottawa, where our friends Andy and Holly had their trailer, and oh, my, did I ever need this. Came back feeling rested. Odd, since there was little actual resting going on, with four kids under 7 there. But as we were driving there I felt like crying, and on the drive home I did not. A good thing, I guess.
Michael Moore and Farenheit 9/11 came up in conversation yesterday. We were wondering if perhaps Disney made a deal with Moore to boost publicity of his movie by not distributing it. A great way to make sure it got all the publicity money couldn't possibly buy, try to influence the election, and still come up smelling like roses to the folks who believe Disney really is a nice family-friendly conservative company despite the domestic partner benefits they provide for their gay employees.
And an Ottawa Citizen article came up, that three of us had read, and I wish my scanner was working right now because I'd totally scan it in. About why the (Canadian) writer of the article is not anti-American, but Dubya is. Beautiful stuff :)
A small sample:
The single best expression of my own political philosophy is the Constitution of the United States. If I were to make a list of the thinkers and leaders I most respect, as many as half of the top 10 spots would go to men the Americans know as Founding Fathers... Jefferson, Franklin, Jay, Hamilton, Madison, Washington: these were extraordinary men. And don't forget Tom Paine, who isn't techically a Fonder but is no less deserving. They were one and all humane, energetic, passionate, intellectually curious and open to the world - the finest fruit of the Enlightenment.
Um, yeah. What he said.
I read the article and suddenly remembered that last year at this time I had a long think about my own position on America and anti-Americanism. Re-read it, and surprisingly my feelings have not changed, despite a year filled with suicide bombings, an Iraqi Pax Americana that's killed more American soldiers than the war itself, the capture of Saddam, the Abu Ghraib brouhaha, and the 'handover' of sovereignty. It's been harder to keep up a positive attitude through all of that, but overall it's still there.
Went day camping yesterday. Visited Fitzroy Park, a teeny little one-hour drive from Ottawa, where our friends Andy and Holly had their trailer, and oh, my, did I ever need this. Came back feeling rested. Odd, since there was little actual resting going on, with four kids under 7 there. But as we were driving there I felt like crying, and on the drive home I did not. A good thing, I guess.
Michael Moore and Farenheit 9/11 came up in conversation yesterday. We were wondering if perhaps Disney made a deal with Moore to boost publicity of his movie by not distributing it. A great way to make sure it got all the publicity money couldn't possibly buy, try to influence the election, and still come up smelling like roses to the folks who believe Disney really is a nice family-friendly conservative company despite the domestic partner benefits they provide for their gay employees.
And an Ottawa Citizen article came up, that three of us had read, and I wish my scanner was working right now because I'd totally scan it in. About why the (Canadian) writer of the article is not anti-American, but Dubya is. Beautiful stuff :)
A small sample:
The single best expression of my own political philosophy is the Constitution of the United States. If I were to make a list of the thinkers and leaders I most respect, as many as half of the top 10 spots would go to men the Americans know as Founding Fathers... Jefferson, Franklin, Jay, Hamilton, Madison, Washington: these were extraordinary men. And don't forget Tom Paine, who isn't techically a Fonder but is no less deserving. They were one and all humane, energetic, passionate, intellectually curious and open to the world - the finest fruit of the Enlightenment.
Um, yeah. What he said.
I read the article and suddenly remembered that last year at this time I had a long think about my own position on America and anti-Americanism. Re-read it, and surprisingly my feelings have not changed, despite a year filled with suicide bombings, an Iraqi Pax Americana that's killed more American soldiers than the war itself, the capture of Saddam, the Abu Ghraib brouhaha, and the 'handover' of sovereignty. It's been harder to keep up a positive attitude through all of that, but overall it's still there.
