Why Not The Fourth of July

As an American, I took for granted celebrating the 4th of July with a parade complete with the local high school marching band, horses from all the roundup clubs in the area, and Shriners in every imaginable conveyance -- miniature cars, miniature motorcycles, motorized bowling pins. I kid you not! Bowling pins. 

Rodeo queens and their princesses, in color coordinated Western hats and boots, riding horses with ribbons braided into their manes and tails. (The horses' mains and tails, of course.) There were princesses representing every organization you can think of. Local beauty pageant winners enthroned on new convertibles, by courtesy of local car dealerships. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, children from the local dance schools. Local children on their personally decorated bikes. Floats with patriotic images fashioned from chicken wire and crepe paper. Floats with square dancers and country music. Floats with polka music. And more people downtown than you'd see all the rest of the year combined. 

            

Then it was off to the park for music, politicians' speeches, and free watermelon. 

Or a private family picnic with homemade ice cream. The little kids would sit on the churn while the men turned the crank. I can't tell you why the little ones sat on the churn, but somehow it was an honor. And there would be fireworks in the yard, set alight by the men or the big cousins. Sometimes that would get pretty exciting if something went awry and the screaming, sparking, exploding whatevers got loose among the grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. 

The city sponsored fireworks displays. Music, more politicians, and much safer fireworks displays.

I'm quite sure I was grown before I really knew what all the brouhaha was meant to be about. We got the bare-bones history in school. July 4, 1776, the date the Declaration of Independence was signed. But it wasn't until I read David McCullough's 1776 that I came to understand that that document was the formal declaration of war against Great Britain. A war that had already been going on for some time.

The Boston Massacre happened in 1770 and the Boston Tea Party in 1773. In September, 1774, twelve of the original thirteen British colonies in the Americas sent representatives to the First Continental Congress to draft a petition to the king and parliament asking for the repeal of the so-called Intolerable Acts. They got no reply.

Actual fighting broke out at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts in April, 1775 with British troops then controlling Boston. That same month George Washington was appointed to form the Continental Army and drive the British out of Boston.

So what about that 4th of July date and the Declaration of Independence? 

The Declaration of Independence

It does seem that it came a little late to the game. But it announced itself as "The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America."

Truth be told, "states" at that time meant "sovereign" nations. Our country would be a confederacy of independent states until The Constitution of the United States was ratified in 1788 and took effect in 1789. Even then, it took a second war with Great Britain and a civil war to make the United States imaginable. We continue to need some serious work to realize the concept of a unified nation.

The Declaration of Independence also said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

I remember thinking that "all men" meant "humanity." No. Those "unalienable Rights" only applied to Englishmen who owned property and that property could include enslaved people.

I grew up in the failing, whites-only world of a segregated Oklahoma. It was obvious to many of us, even in the 60's, that the way it had always been, had always been wrong and must change.

Amendments to our Constitution, court decisions, and elections have brought us on a winding, rocky road to our current understanding of "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" for all Americans and "a more perfect Union." Here we are in 2021 still far short of the goals of The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution. 

             

A mass burial on Hart Island in the Bronx borough of New York. 

Pulitzer Award photo by AP photographer John Minchillo (04-09-2020)

        

        A protester in Minneapolis unrest following the death of George Floyd

     Pulitzer Award photo by AP photographer Julio Cortez (05-28-2020)

I want to trust that we are coming out of a dark time in our history and that I will live long enough to see those goals achieved and have good reason to celebrate this nation. 

 

Janis: Little Girl Blue

Janis: Little Girl Blue, Official Trailer

Instead of a still pic of Janis, I'm putting up the Official Trailer. Give it a watch. I think you'll enjoy it.  For Janis, you need sound and color and motion. The Amy Berg documentary has it all and more.

I heard about Janis: Little Girl Blue on NPR December 1. I wanted to see it, but where was it showing? It supposedly aired on PBS's American Masters on November 25 which should mean that I could stream it on my TV at home. Easy-peasy, no driving. Wear what I'm wearing. Have a nice whatever I want to eat and drink. Sounded lovely. But it was not meant to be. Janis: Little Girl Blue doesn't show up on PBS's American Experience website.

Surely it'd be showing somewhere in Denver. Yup. December 4, 7:30, The Sie FilmCenter. Of which I'd never heard. Located on East Colfax which was somewhere downtown.

The Sie FilmCenter is separated from The Tattered Cover by a sort of alleyway re-purposed for outdoor dining. I've been to the bookstore several times, but had never noticed the theater. You get me near a bookstore or library and I can't see anything else.

Colfax is Denver's primary east/west surface street. I knew how to get there. Except, it was December 4, the first of two holiday Parade of Lights. The parade would cross Colfax west of the theater -- that was between me and my destination. An alternative route would be necessary.

No problem. I'd just go the way I go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, my favorite place in Colorado. Cut north to Colfax and voila, I'm there.

Thank goodness, my daughter was with me, navigating. Who'd a thought the traffic would be so bad?! Guess it was Friday night in the big town with a parade that traditionally brought people into downtown by the hundreds, maybe thousands, from what I was seeing. And, like me, those folks weren't used to driving downtown in the dark with roads closed for a parade.

We got to the theater in plenty of time, took the elevated down from the parking garage to a subterranean theater lobby complete with bar and snack bar. And me, I thought I was so grown up at my regular movie theater where I can get a nice cappuccino and popcorn. Here I could get a nice margarita and popcorn.

We got to the window and Janis was sold out. BUT, we could take a number and see if anyone who'd bought a ticket online then cancelled or whatever, didn't show up, in which case we could buy those tickets, but we'd probably have to sit in the front row and may not be able to sit together. They'd let us know in about ten minutes.

I'd just driven through that traffic. The parade hadn't started yet and getting home would still be through that mess. The next showings of Janis: Little Girl Blue were sold out. My bad attitude was ignited and I wasn't about to come back downtown again anytime soon.

It worked out that we got two seats together and the front row seats have high backs so it was surprisingly comfortable to lean back and watch the show. And with the audience all behind me, it was as if they didn't exist. It was just Grace and I, our entire field of vision filled with the sights and sounds of my youth.

The documentary is very well-done. Lots of footage of Janis performing. It's matter-of-fact about the difficulties of being Janis Joplin, but not dreary. She did everything, be happy or be sad, full-tilt, just like she performed. And the film shows that.

Janis also has snippets from her letters to her family and interviews with her brother and sister that were enlightening and comforting. You get the idea that her family loved her and cared about her, kinda like the rest of us.

Janis: Little Girl Blue with its sights and sounds from an intense and turbulent time in our nation and lives brings back Janis's own passionate exhibition of that longing and laughter.

It was more than worth driving home in Downtown Denver traffic. All the lights and noise and people on the street just extended the experience.

P.S. I misread when Janis: Little Girl Blue will air on PBS's American Masters. It's next year some time. So we can all watch it again without the traffic.

P.P.S. Still glad I got to see it on the big screen.