<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large;">The Fourth of July</b><br>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align:baseline">There is nothing more
sacred in the holidays of the United States than the Fourth of July. I am writing from across the northern border
in Calgary, Alberta where we just celebrated the bright red of Canada Day of
July 1.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align:baseline">The young Canadian
visa officer who welcomed me at the airport asked how long I intended to stay,
and had I been in Canada before, so I told him that I planned on being around
for a couple of weeks but that I lived in the 70s in Saskatchewan. He gave me a long face and said: “Oh, I feel
sorry for you!” Perhaps, he was just
showing me an example of the Canadian understated sense of humor though I found
out later that there is a sporting rivalry and social competition between the
two provinces.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align:baseline">Some comments I made
of late on the U.S. sound anti-American. I do not consider myself a contrarian but it is
well to reflect on my country from outside its borders, particularly from the
land of Justin Bieber who delights in the company of American ladies and Toronto
Mayor Rob Ford who sniffs the white snuff readily available in our streets;
there is a sporting but competitive ambience between the two countries.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align:baseline">One of the things we
utter on the Fourth of July is our pledge of allegiance. </span><i>"I pledge
allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for
which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all." </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-style: italic;vertical-align:baseline"></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline">A chronology of the
pledge with additions in <i>italics</i> shows that the pledge began in 1892 simply
as: </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;vertical-align:baseline">"I
pledge allegiance to my Flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." By 1922, “and the republic” became “and <i>to </i>the republic”. By 1923, it became “allegiance to the<i> </i>Flag <i>of the United States,” </i>with “the United States <i>of America” </i>made specific by 1954, and finally, “one Nation <i>under God,” </i>from 1954 to the present. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-style: italic;vertical-align:baseline"></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline">The religious amongst
us quarreled over the addition of <i>“under God”</i> inserted during President Eisenhower’s
watch, with the non-theist questioning the propriety of a loaded religious
phrase in a secular pronouncement. The
debate continues, though no longer on the denominational divide in Christendom
as it once was, to the issue of religious relevance in the secular, scientific
and urban world.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline">“Indivisible” is reality
in progress. Satirist Borowitz in the
New Yorker wrote when Kerry urged Maliki to convene a unity government that
Iraq might actually get a unity government before the United States gets close
to being one. PM Maliki, of course,
junked Kerry’s suggestion since conflict rather than conciliation is the language
of relationship in the region of black gold.
At least the Iraqis are forthright without the pretense we go through
charade in the U.S. political process.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline">On “liberty and
justice for all,” we strain hard to even come close to claiming that we are
working on the project. In 1866, the
first Civil Rights Act was passed to protect the African-American former slaves
who became citizens to be treated equally under the law. That did not happen. It is now the 50</span>th<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic;vertical-align:baseline"> year of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, almost a century after the 1866 Act, </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#1C1C1C;vertical-align:baseline">outlawing
discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-style: italic;vertical-align:baseline"> JFK
started the ’64 Act, and LBJ the consummate Congressional master got it passed
without much of a hitch, getting it refined in ’65 with the Voting Rights Act, adding
equal housing in ’68, and the disabled, mentally ill, and the elderly
thereafter. It remains a work in
progress though Obama gave the race issue a major dent from the discrimination I
encountered in ’65.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#1C1C1C; vertical-align:baseline">So, “liberty and justice for all” remains a work in
progress, particularly if one lives in Castro District of SF in the Bay Area
with the LGBT crowd appropriately leading the WorldPride March this Fourth of
July, now observed as a multi-gender celebration around the world. Some of my colleagues now concede that the
legal status of same-sex marriage is a done deal (more pro States exceed the <i>con</i>), like the way the Civil Rights Act
1964 led to the legal emancipation of the African-American from the structures
of racial segregation, but the specifics of the unraveling remain a painful
ordeal to many.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#1C1C1C; vertical-align:baseline">“Outlawing discrimination based on race, color,
religion, sex, or national origin” was the ’64 Civil Rights Act’s intent. New Zealand’s 17 percent Maori made the
country bilingual, and the 14 percent Asians that include rich Chinese has some
folks talking about a multilingual civil society.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#1C1C1C; vertical-align:baseline">There are many in the U.S. who wants to retain an
“English” only national character though signage in some States and major
cities are in “Spanish and English”. We
recently commented how many residents are from Asia and Mexico west of the
Rockies. With the Mongolian Native
Americans, the west coast of America might just as well be the East Pacific
coast of Asia!</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#1C1C1C; vertical-align:baseline">So the Fourth of July is no longer just recalling the heroic
patriots and militiamen of Concord and Lexington of pre-1776 declaration of
Independence. The Fourth of July in our
time is a celebration of the harmony in diversity that is a possible choice of
citizens in a landmass shrinking in the digitized world. <i>Nos
dejo. </i>Let’s. <i>Soyons.</i></span></div>
<br>
<div style="clear:both"><i>j'aime la vie</i><br>
<a href="mailto:pinoypanda2031@aol.com">pinoypanda2031@aol.com</a><br>
<div><i>yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!</i></div>
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