As many people who regularly read this blog will know, there is much that I admire about America and the American people. I admire the ingenuity of the Americans, the ‘can do’ attitude of many of the US citizens I’ve encountered along with their politeness. Maybe I’m lucky but the vast majority of Americans I’ve met and encountered have been thoroughly decent types.
I have been impressed by the ability and willingness of Americans to stand up for what they believe in and to defend the Constitution that gives Americans amongst other things the right to speak freely, a right sadly removed from the citizens and subjects of many other Western nations. America or rather the ideals of America have been an inspiration to many peoples over the centuries looking to free themselves from the social and political shackles that bind them.
The Free World and in particular the UK does owe a debt of gratitude to the US or rather its armed forces who assisted the UK and others greatly in fighting back against the monstrous tyranny that engulfed Europe between 1933 and 1945. It is partly because of the efforts of US and UK troops fighting together that my family exists and are not ashes. It was primarily the efforts of the USA that after 1945 kept another monster, this time that of Communism, from engulfing places like West Germany, France and Italy. British and US troops have fought alongside one another for over a century from the muddy slaughterhouses of World War One right through to the dusty backwards hell holes of places like Afghanistan.
No country is perfect. All nations have their faults but it’s right and proper in my view to recognise that America has made a positive contribution to the world.
This particular Briton would like to take this opportunity to wish America and my American readers a happy national birthday.
Independence Day is such a big deal in the US that some Americans are genuinely surprised that it isn’t celebrated worldwide. I would love it if the UK could get that excited about freeing ourselves from the EU and have our own independence day on the 23rd of June. The obstacles to that happening would be (1) that we aren’t really celebrating the birth of a nation, it’s more about realising that we had made a terrible mistake and managed to rectify it before it became too late. And (2) that the decision to leave was by no means unanimous, almost half of us thought that tying ourselves to an unaccountable bureaucracy in perpetuity was a good idea.
So maybe leavers could all buy a big firework rocket in November or at New Year and put it away until June. If we all set one off on the 23rd, eventually it will become a thIng that people get used to and expect to happen every year.
A coordinated firework display by leavers on the 23rd June does seem like a good idea. It might catch on. Agree that there is a big difference between a people freeing themselves from an Empire that had become oppressive to them as is the case with America and a nation realising that they’ve made a big mistake that needed to be rectified which is the case with the vote to leave the EU.
I don’t believe that the American Revolution was unanimously supported either, there were quite a few loyalists who didn’t want to break with Britain. Ben Shapiro has a brilliant timeline of Revolution video in which he claims that economics and a fear by Westminster that the Americans could become more numerically dominant than Britons, rather than a philosophy of liberty were behind the US Revolution. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUBgQ3QB-Hc