What does the 4th of July mean to you?

Just other day of the year, except with more drunken idiots and fireworks….

^ Precisely.

Family get togethers, bar-b-que, fireworks! Oh yeah, ^and more drunken idiots.

There’s has been much revisioning of American history since what I was taught in school that, sadly, I’ve grown pretty cynical about most holidays. Nonetheless, I look forward to a day off from work to recharge my batteries and count my blessings.

I couldn’t care less about the fireworks, but I do like to celebrate the greatest nation in the world’s birthday.

We only have two national holidays; we should use both of them to reflect on how lucky we are, and of course become a drunken idiot and have good food with friends.

Happy 4th everyone. Turkey and vodka is the order of the day.

An excuse to party and blow shit up. That’s it.

It’s my birthday!

It means getting drunk and blowing things up….at least it used to. Now I kick back play some Stevie Ray Vaughn on my guitar…real loud…tear up river in the boat and be proud to be an American and fly lots of flags to mark the occasion! Happy 4th everybody!!

Big alien motherships hovering above incinerated cities.

somtimes, sexy is strange ;)

Meh.

I didn’t have a real sense of the 4th (parades as a kid were cool), until I lived in a foreign country during our nation’s bicentennial. It was tough to be away from the USA at such an important historic moment and it gave me a reality check. I tear up when the national anthem is played, I think about the soldiers who gave their lives for what I am able to enjoy today (my freedoms, such as they are—limited because I am gay), I think about the courage it took for people to leave their country and come to a totally new place without any real sense of what that would entail.

I think about the courage to face the wilderness and build something new (perhaps just for one’s own family). I stop to think what democracy means, particularly as a woman who is able to seek an education without concern for being made to wear a veil. I live in a place where I will not be stoned for being female and without power. I live in a place where I get to vote (and do so every single time the opportunity is available). I stop to remember how we all came together after 9–11.

I think about the heroes (large and small) who decided that one person really could make a difference in a place where people are free. I think about the good and bad times in our nation’s history and the distance we have moved from the enslavement of others. I think of the genius it took to conceive of the very ideals that made “America” possible. I am grateful that I can openly criticize the things with which I don’t always agree. I think about what my life would be like if I lived in a foreign county in which I didn’t have what I am able to have here.

I stop, I cry, I pray, I remember, I feel gratitude. I am an American. That simple statement says so much to so many people (those before me and those who will follow). I think about the immigrants who want to make their station better as my immigrant forebears so desired.

Today, for me, it is more than a burgers on a grill or some fat lady wearing what she thinks is a patriotic t-shirt. I will fly my flag. I am an American . . .

The date that I first started “seeing” my girlfriend. Two weeks later we were going out. Coming up to 2 years now.

BBQ and beer! and fireworks!

Now it means jumping into the bay fully clothed with my very best friend after last summer.

Memories…. buying fireworks from the ice cream man. Ashcans – 12 for a $1.00, powerful enough to blow a garbage can 20 feet in the air, if it didn’t unwrap it. Shooting cherry bombs and M-80’s high into the sky with my sling shot while my friend Bobby lit them. “Hold it, hold it, hold it, Now!”

We have a big event where we try all kinds of adult experiments. What happens if we fill an old aluminum arrow with FFFG and put a primer in the front? Is it really true that X plus Y does Z? Hey, let’s fill an old Estes rocket with pyrodex and send it out over the lake. Awesome! Get the video camera out.

Tons of fun and good food. It’s my favorite day of the year. .

It means that the cat and dog are going to freak out so wankers can get drunk and mystified at sparkles. I hate this fucking stupid holiday.

To me its a time for patriotism for our country. legalized American citizens, no matter the color of their skin.

I just wonder if the illegal immigrants will be celebrating?

@john65pennington : although different, my friends and i tend to celebrate cinco de mayo… any excuse to drink is a good enough excuse! :) just an example!

It means a day of the year. The 4th of July is not celebrated where I live.

Fireworks on a small level.

On a bigger level it means false patriotism. We are celebrating our independence that was built on the slaughter of a nation of people. Not an ideology worth celebration in my opinion.

Means my US based boss and counterparts will be out of the office on Monday….a whole day to get ahead before new things roll in :D

This year it’s election day in Bavaria. Democracy is always worth celebrating. In Germany we do this on October 3. And of course on July 4 I always think of my American friends and more than 200 years of democracy.

Barbeque, cold beers and….....protecting the cats & calming the dogs while keeping one eye on the roof (errant bottle rockets from neighborhood kids) & the other on the adjacent hill (brush fire watch), & wondering where in the hell the bullet that was just discharged by some idiot (hopefully into the sky away from the city) is actually going to drop, with the sound of sirens in the distance (and hopefully not approaching).
See ya…..Gary/wtf

It’s a day of remembering, missing, sadness. Today, July 4th, is the anniversary of my dear DIL’s death. He was an amazing person and was taken too soon. Today I will light a candle for him, and we’ll talk about him, and even smile too while remembering him. He made me laugh a lot when he was alive, and welcomed me to the family with such warmth all those years ago. He deserves smiles, not tears, but because he was as special as he was, he’ll get both.