By Jerry the Poet
The Santa Monica fireworks display at John Adams Middle School on Saturday night was beautiful but lacked much meaning. Once again Santa Monica officials have taken the meaning out of what’s supposed to be a meaningful holiday. Holding a pseudo-celebration so far in advance of the actual holiday takes a lot of the celebrational wind out of the fourth when it finally comes. Imagine celebrating your birthday or wedding anniversary a week before it happens. A week later when the event actually comes it’s anticlimactic, just like most events planned for us by our trusted keepers. There was a time in our recent past when we as a people and as Santa Monicans celebrated our most unifying national holiday when it happened and how we wanted to. Hopefully, soon some leader will arise and lead us away from our keepers who knock the wind out of our celebratory sails. We need someone to give us our holidays back, or maybe some day we’ll stand up and take charge of ourselves and stop being led around on such short leashes. It’s also interesting to note that government offices and schools are closed in Santa Monica on the Fourth of July, and our keepers are out celebrating somewhere while also getting paid. Can’t they just let us celebrate our holiday our way? Are there any George Washingtons or John Adams left to save us?
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 1, 2008. Read the original PDF.