Independence Day

America's Favorite Holliday

For so many reasons.

Hooray for the red white and blue! I know America has it flaws but I think we are allowed one holliday to celebrate our best — those things that we can justifiably be proud of. Things like the stirring words of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights in our Constitution. And we should be proud of some of the things that flow from them, like the idea of political equality; that everyone's vote counts the same. Like the notion that no one, no matter how rich or powerful or what his office may be is above the law.

We should also celebrate sturdy and time-tested constitutional structure which supports that law. A constitution which has, so far, survived all the many assaults by those who would weaken it in order to further their personal ambitions at the expense of our nation and its citizens. It is not our rivers and mountains but our constitution that protects us from Russian style kleptocracy or Venezuelan style chaos in the midst of riches. Political equality for all, the rule of law instead of the rule of strong men, the notion that the same law applies to everyone, these are our national treasures and we should celebrate them as such.

We must not become too smug or complacent. Even while we are alseep or at play, our world is changing in unpredictable ways. We will need to be alert and vigorous in our defense of what we have for it can easily be perverted from democracy to mob rule to one-man rule. Be their names Duterte, Erdogan, Maduro, the pattern is clear and the downward path is almost always the easiest.

So Hooray! for the red, white and blue. Let us seize this confluence of constitutional crisis and patriotic fervor as an opportunity to build an even fairer and more resilient nation than we have today.

In Other News,

Science is back!

I started parts of this website in 2001 and some have not aged well. I am starting to update what seems worth keeping and one of the first is Science. These are mostly pieces from 2003 and it is interesting how some have held up and others didn't. So far, only the desktop version is ready. I'll try to get the smartphone version up next week.