4th July: Independence Meh

Bacon, that's what REALLY matters

So, Independence Day. That grand ole 4th July!  That day of freedom from us damn persecutors and royal British bullies. Get out yer flags, dust off them barbecues, roll up the parade and all manner of some such stuff that I am very glad not to be in the States for, for I am indeed now back from my travels. And it's odd, the 4th July stuff that is, not the back from my travels bit, that was a foregone conclusion. I obey visa laws see, contrary to what US customs officials seemed to assume on my arrival judging by the 2 hour stint in Philadelphia's immigration interrogation centre, rummage through my bags and questioning about my bank balance. Needless to say I passed with flying colours, possibly just because liked the look of my smalls. But anyways, I digress, and never mind cos it's THE 4TH OF JULY, LET MADNESS ENSUE!

And madness it is really, or at least it seems a little mad from my British perspective, and even more so following the conversations pressed upon me by various Americans in my travels. Maybe it's being British, and being the repressors rather than the repressed. You see us Brits don't have a day like this. A freedom day, a national day. Yes ok we English have a St George's day, but it's not really the same is it? I mean, we don't have giant St Georges parading the streets, felling foul dragons every year, accompanied by the sound of Morris bells twinkling, English flag waving and cream teas, though actually, that does sound quite fun... But maybe we should have such a day (putting to one side that our Patron saint hailed from what is now modern day Israel, so not really very English at all) as after all, the Americans seem to get so much from Independence Day, as do the Canadians from Canada day. But us Englanders, not so much. 

Yanks on the other hand can't get enough, and when the subject of Independence Day came up, as it did once or twice on my travels, their glee and triumphalism was rather deflated by the muted 'yeah, it's not really a big deal' shoulder shrugging of my father and I. The 'yeah, we beat you colonialist overlords, don't you regret that now' bravado was somewhat punctured my 'when was that war again?' mehness that they simply can't understand. Maybe it's just a matter of scale. You see, our history in the UK (& I never meant to sound snobby or imperialistic here) is 

Independence Day, Abba style

so much longer than the Americans. It's not rude, that's just the way it is. Our land has been fighting so many battles, over so much longer a period of time, that we simply can't study and 
celebrate them all or we'd be having public holidays all over the shop. I mean, one can hardly imagine holding 'Agincourt day' or  'Waterloo day' (for which I am quite glad to be honest as I could only foresee Abba's notorious hit being the new Noddy Holder number for mid June). And that's certainly not to say we won all our battles, we lost so many it's hard to keep track let alone hold a day of mourning for them, but there are just SO many.


But yet, I think that's what Americans seem to think we do on 4th July, mourn our losses. They discuss it with a Brit with this look of sympathy on their faces, like we should be weeping the day through. I hated to let them down (that's a lie, I did often let them down, if only to puncture the afore mentioned triumphalism), but in the UK we barely notice the day passing, it's just not A Thing. We don't even study it in school, let alone mourn it's passing each year. However I think the crux of the matter was highlighted when one cheeky yank said to me 'we wouldn't study wars we lost either', as you see we don't seem to study wars. We seem to study (or at least I certainly did right up to the age of 18) civilisations, the Romans, the Normans, the Tudors, Stewarts, industrial revolution etc. It's not about wars it's about people. I mean yes, we have the world wars which get studied, but not because we won them, but because they were such Big Things in our history, nay in WORLD history. I mean the Germans lost them but they certainly study such epic moments in history, because they are just so epic and there are lessons to be learned from such events. But America is such a new country their history is still in the making. They have to celebrate these days, and that's just fine and Yankee Doodle dandy, so let them get out their bunting and barbecues. Let them wave their flags and hate the English for one day of the year, and enjoy it America. Really do. Just don't expect us English to mourn the day. After all, we're too busy mourning the fact your football team are better than ours, cos when it comes to it, that's what really matters to the English.

Another day in the life of an England supporter