Three Way News

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Tuesday, July 05, 2005

July 4th in the city vs. July 4th in the 'burbs

I took the Jamboetts canoeing on a couple of the city lakes yesterday. Lake of the Isles was beautiful with a view of the Minneapolis skyline over the bird sanctuary island in the middle. While we were paddling (and by we I mean me) over to Cedar Lake there we saw a group that was having some sort of annual 4th of July party and canoe race (according to a homemade sign I saw on shore.) There were all kinds of floats made out of paper mache and mounted on canoes, some of them very elaborate complete with people in costume paddling them. The one that I got the biggest kick out of was one that consisted of two canoes carrying a giant red white and blue Eiffel Tower with the words "Merci LaFayette!" on the side.

Out here in the suburbs where my office is there is an appliance store a few blocks away that always devotes most of it's sign to the owner's Christian message rather than promoting the latest sale items. I noticed that in honor of the recent holiday their sign said, "Jesus made us free. Happy 4th of July." I'm sure this would come as quite a shock to the 25,000 not quite yet Americans who died in the Revolution and the signers of the Declaration of Independence who knew their signature was likely a death sentence for treason if they fell short of their goal. Were someone on the left to be so cavalier with the sacrifices of our forefathers they would likely be declared un-American and unpatriotic, and some where in the wingnut blog world be accused of treason themselves.

Make of those contrasts what you will.