Back during the COVID debacle, the Town of Pagosa Springs officially took over the management of the annual July 4th Parade through downtown. The Rotary Club had been running the show for as long ans anyone could remember, but they finally ran out of steam and handed it off the taxpayers, who are more than happy to celebrate ‘Freedom’, especially now that our governments will have a big windfall from skyrocketing property taxes.
In fact, the Town of Pagosa Springs – in its wisdom — picked that very theme for the 2023 Parade.
“Freedom”
The organizations who have signed up to march with flags and banners, or ride in decorated floats, are encouraged to exhibit their interpretations of the theme.
So, in the interests of being helpful, I’ve decided to share some thoughts about “Freedom”… in case some of the organizations are confused about what it means.
In the context of July 4th, most people will likely feel inclined to celebrate the Freedom obtained by the English colonists during the American Revolution, which was mostly a freedom from taxes levied by the English government.
Unfortunately, the war was so expensive, the colonists ended up paying taxes to the new American government instead. A tradition which continues to this very day, thanks largely to the $1 trillion dollars spent annually on the U.S. military.
The military ensures our Freedom from foreign enemies, but not our Freedom from taxes. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Some of the organizations might want to celebrate our Freedom to elect our own President, instead of being stuck with a King or Queen who inherits the job from a previous King or Queen.
That’s an interesting idea. But at the most recent election, we had a choice of Joe Biden and Donald Trump. If that’s anyone’s definition of Freedom, they’re welcome to it.
There were some wonderful concepts included in the Declaration of Independence, that are directly connected to English ideas about Freedom. We have, for example, the second paragraph.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness… That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…
Speaking personally, I’ve been pursuing Happiness for many years, and — thanks to the American Revolution — might have obtained it once or twice. You can’t easily pursue Happiness unless you have a certain kind of Freedom.
But a number of people much smarter than me, have observed that the Anticipation of Happiness is more enjoyable than the Happiness itself, and as a person who was married for many years, I can attest to that truth.
The great thing about Anticipation is, you don’t even need Freedom. You can even, simply, Anticipate Freedom, and it works out just fine. Once again, the anticipation beats out the real thing.
Thinking back to the American Revolution, I seriously doubt any of the organizations will choose to celebrate the Freedom to kill the indigenous inhabitants of Turtle Island (a Native American name for North America) and take their homeland from them. That’s a version of Freedom that probably ought remain tucked away in the history books. Which can then be banned, or burned, as necessary.
Ben Franklin once observed the painful fact that young English colonists were prone to running off to join the Indians. (In anticipation of Happiness?)
But curiously enough, young Indians were not running off to join the colonies.
So we might wonder, what — really — is Freedom?
Escaping from the English culture… the endless hours behind the plow, sitting in the pew listening to the Minister drone on and on about sin, bound up with oppressive sexual prohibitions… who wouldn’t want to run off and join the ‘Savages’?
I see where historians have now come up with a new theory about the Great Wall of China. For all these years, it was assumed that the Great Wall was built to keep out the Nomadic Barbarians. But recent scholarship is discovering that, in fact, the Great Wall was built by the government — at great expense — to keep young Chinese from running off to join the Nomads.
Which might cause us to wonder about the Wall that’s currently partly built along the southern U.S. border?
I mean, since we’re talking about Freedom.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.