Blimps & Time

We took off today to pre-celebrate my youngest daughter’s 13^th birthday.  We celebrated with presents, a trip to “5 Below” for Japanese candy, and a feast of sushi held in her honor.  We came home and the dogs were put on their leads so they could do whatever they needed to do, my wife went to her computer, my oldest to her Xbox, and my two youngest kids decided to stay outside for a walk.  I was taking some pictures when I saw something in the sky.

“Come quick!” I shouted to my two younger kids.  ‘Kids’ by the way, is going out of style in my household.  My youngest turns 13 this weekend and I live completely and utterly in a house full of women.

“What?” they asked.  They were unenthused.  Of course how could they be?  They had not seen the wonderful airship that I just saw in the sky!  A vessel out of time.  A blimp!  It was still visible but it was moving.

“You’ll see but you’ve got to hurry up!” I said.  They were not moving any faster.  I gave another look and, sure enough, the blimp was starting to disappear.  “Come on, this is cool!”

“Dad, your idea of ‘cool’…” my middle child was about to say something but I interrupted her and pointed skyward.

“See!” I said but there was nothing there.  The blimp had passed beyond the treetops.  Gone.  I was the only one who would ever know that it was there.

“What?” she asked.

“It was a blimp,” I said, “You missed it.”

“A blimp.” She said. “You got excited about a blimp?”

“Yes, I did.” I said. “I wanted to share it with you.”  I was looking at both of them.  I must have looked a bit forlorn and crestfallen.

“It’s not that we didn’t want to see it with you.” She said.  My youngest nodding her agreement.

“I don’t blame you." I said.  "I blame time.”  The girls looked at me strangely anew.  “I remember a time not all that long ago when blimps would have been cool to see fly in the air.  And now that time is gone.”  I made my way inside to my computer and after a bit of poking around I wrote this remorseful little ditty.  

I should start to schedule my mid-life crisis.  Hold on, let me check my calendar… OH.  My mistake, I thought it was set for a time in the future. 

It turns out I’m already there. 

Happy Fourth of July!

Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day, here in the United States of America.  237 years ago, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the document was adopted and those 13 original colonies declared themselves independent from Kingdom of Great Britain.

The Declaration of Independence

We still must, as a nation, reinvest ourselves in these principals set forth by this declaration and by the Constitution of the United States.  

 

The Constitution (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution) was adopted on September 17, 1787 by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.  To date there have been 27 different amendments to our Constitution.  The first 10 were adapted by the House of Representatives on August 21, 1789 and are, more commonly known as, “The Bill of Rights” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights).  These are the rights that we are entitled to as citizens of these United States.

The United States Bill of Rights

Tyranny takes many forms and seeps in through the cracks while a population is not looking.  It is important, therefore, not only to know that these documents and rights exist but to understand what they truly mean to each of us who are citizens of these United States.  We the people must always be aware.  The words contained in these documents either mean everything – or they mean nothing.  There will always be affronts and both subtle and direct attacks against these documents and our rights.  We must continue to stand for these words.  Today, across our country, Restore the Fourth (see: http://www.restorethefourth.net/) rallies were held in major cities including New York, Washington DC, Denver, San Francisco, and in Philadelphia where the Declaration of Independence was signed all those years ago. 

  

Thousands of people met today to underline the importance of the Fourth Amendment which concerns itself with, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…” and it’s importance underlined most effectively by recent events (see: http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2013/06/whistleblowing-prophecies-of-dark-knight.html or do a search for, “NSA spying”).  These citizens exercised their right to assemble and stood for a cause that I wholeheartedly believe in.  I couldn't make the event today but, Lord knows, I've Tweeted about it. 

Happy Birthday to these United States and the ideas set down on paper some 237 years ago today.  Again, those words must mean everything or they mean nothing.  I must believe that they still mean everything.

Happy Fourth of July, Gentle Reader!

“May the wings of liberty never lose a feather.” – Jack Burton, Patriot