June 30, 2008
July 4th and the party spirit
Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, obviously goes to some great parties. He writes in The New York Times that :
“The last few years, we’ve spent July Fourth at the house of friends who have had the assembled company read the entire declaration (of independence)… I was doubtful at first that reading the declaration would enhance the overall beer-and-hamburger experience of the day. But the effort has proved more thought-provoking and patriotism-stirring than I expected.”
I’ve also been to some July 4th parties. It can be a slightly awkward experience as a British passport holder - since the whole thing is a celebration of throwing off the colonial yoke. It’s the same thing with being invited round for Thanksgiving dinner - since the Americans are, in fact, celebrating leaving Britain and landing in the Americas. At some point, one of of your hosts, is bound to smile and say - “I guess you Brits don’t really celebrate Thanksgiving.”
Simon Hoggart of The Guardian has come up with the perfect response to this: “On the contrary, we give thanks for getting rid of all those dreary Puritans.” I once tried this out on my American hosts, but they didn’t really laugh.
Three cheers for Simon Hoggart (who should know a thing or two about America after all the years he was The Observer’s correspondent out there).
Maybe, you should have misquoted him slightly as “On the contrary we give thanks for getting rid of all those smug buggers with no sense of humour or irony!”
Posted by: Pacifist | June 30th, 2008 at 2:55 pm | Report this commentMost Americans’ ancestors did not come from Britain. Why are they celebrating something which is not theirs?
Why do so many Brits feel British, despite lacking distinctive Anglo-Saxon features (upper classes?) or Celtic features (lower classes?)?
(I better put on a helmet.)
Posted by: RCS | June 30th, 2008 at 4:53 pm | Report this commentTo answer your first question, RCS, July 4th is a symbol of the freedom that all Americans (or their ancestors) came to this country hoping to find, no matter what their origins.
I cannot comment on your second point, my last trip to Britain having taken place almost fifty years ago, when, I am quite sure, there was considerably less diversity in facial types than at present.
Posted by: algasema | June 30th, 2008 at 5:44 pm | Report this commentI would have thought that the upper class would be Norman.
Anglo-Saxon is definitely low class & vulgar.
Posted by: Jalipa | July 2nd, 2008 at 11:23 am | Report this comment“Most Americans’ ancestors did not come from Britain. Why are they celebrating something which is not theirs?”
We have a party on the 4th of July and many of my husband’s colleagues attend who are not US citizens and they seem to enjoy themselves. We have enough property that we can have our own fireworks and not bother the neighbors (they are pseudo-legal in Florida.)
Posted by: JAF | July 3rd, 2008 at 1:44 am | Report this commentRCS,
Americans are called “Anglos” by Hispanics and Hispanics are called “Latinos”…that´s enough to understand what the 4th of July means, the foundation, as Alexis de Tocqueville knew, of the birth of the Anglo-American nation.
I don´t have any doubt that the overwhelming majority of Americans are Anglos, assimilated into the Anglo culture, with Anglo names, speaking English…
We could ask too why Americans call Latinos to millions of people in Latinamerica who are Indians or Blacks? Just because they have been assimilated into the Spanish culture and have Spanish names and speak Spanish…
Spaniards also are an amalgamation of Iberians, Celts, Basques, Latins, Visigoths, Swabians, Arabs, Berbers, Jews and now millions of people from all over the World…but we are considered Latinos as the cultural foundation of Spain/Hispania took place the year 212 BC when the Roman General Publius Cornelius Scipius arrived to Spain to defeat Carthago.
I met in the USA many Anglos of Italian, Polish, Ukrainian ancestry…but they were assimilated into the Anglo-American nation so they were born on July 4th.
Posted by: Enrique | July 3rd, 2008 at 2:37 am | Report this comment