The Varieties of 4th of July Experience
I always approach July 4th with a bit of ambivalence. On the one hand, I am deeply “into” holidays, am a fan of times when people are inordinately nice to one another, and like any excuse to overeat grilled food. On the other hand, I take a look at the state of my nation, in the sum total of its parts, and can’t help but think that the festivities should be postponed until some things–quality of life, disastrous educational policies, an ailing economy, the ecological crisis, and the rest–are diagnosed, addressed, and changed. Good luck, right? And the discovery of disheartening news like this makes it hard to even get behind such potentially momentous things as “change we can believe in” seem too little, too late.
But I am optimistic this year. In fact, it could be called my “patriotic year” insofar as I have put my personality behind something that explicitly deals with the stabilization of our nation. Several months ago, I was invited by my Emmy-winning friend Adam to play a bit part in the Colonial Williamsburg Productions “Electronic Field Trip” called The Will of the People, a film detailing a contested presidential election (will not detail which one) and its subsequent consequences. The film will be broadcast to participating schools and on several PBS stations in October. I will alert everybody once I learn more. Needless to say, I play a disenfranchised and poor character that will allow you to regard me with pity, perhaps even more so than before.
So call it guarded optimism. I am excited about the Americanisms that I have planned for today: the eating of delicious burgers, the drinking of iced teas and beers (PBR/”Union Made,” ain’t nothing wrong with THAT), the chance to sit back, reflect, and watch Red Dawn–once called “the best documentary ever made” by a good friend, perhaps better understood as “the most ridiculous allegory of 1980s cinema”–and generally take it easy. I won’t be wearing a flag pin on my lapel or soothsaying about how it’s all going to shit. After all, The Will of the People might help make this upcoming Presidential election a little bit more civil, right?
