Bill Plante
We had dispensed with dealing with the governor joining in a sea wash of smiles as he signed the budget, so I asked Big Freddy how he was going to spend the Fourth.
"Dry, one way or another,'' Freddy said.
"Inside as well as out?'' I asked.
"Inside, if it's still raining, and outside in my hammock if it's not,'' he said. "But inside or out, I will raise my customary toasts to those three generations removed from you and I who are doing the heavy lifting for the rest of the world in the muddled East.''
"Yet again,'' I said.
"And again, and again, and again from the halls of wherever to the shores of you-name-it until we won't be able to afford BB guns because the Disunited Nations has become a cipher regarding such matters since we decided to take over where Rome left off 2,000 years ago,'' Freddy said.
"It does go on and on,'' I said.
"Across the oceans white with foam to the deserts where the poppies grow and grow, row on row, because we're making the world free for — you should pardon the expression — Democracy,'' Freddy said.
"Not really,'' I said.
"Ah, you noticed,'' Freddy said.
"Enough with the sarcasm,'' I said. "We're trying to protect us from what happened back on 9/11, which, so far, we've been able to do.''
"I am not being sarcastic,'' Freddy said. "I'm waving the flag, the grand old flag, the high-flying flag, the emblem of the land we love, the home of the free and the brave, because it's a reminder we're hung up in the foreign entanglements Washington warned us about way back when.''
"You don't have to steal words from our patriotic songs to make your point,'' I said.
"I am not stealing them,'' Freddy said. "I'm respecting them and those who wrote them. The problem is they dealt with the world that was at the time they were written, and trying to make them fit for the world we're trying to deal with is something else.''
"Bushwah!" I said. "Principles are principles. Playing fast and loose with them is what gets us in trouble. It got us where we are in Iraq and the pits we're in with the economy.''
"Enough with the Bush war,'' Freddy said.
"No pun intended,'' I said. "What I meant was that those who wrote the songs were dealing with a time when the two oceans and what were really primitive communication technologies, compared to today, kept us insulated from the immediacy of events that brought us to where we are.''
"Terrorists,'' Freddy said.
"Not just 9/11, but the explosion of trade worldwide and the intrusion of new cultures one atop the other around the world,'' I said. "Our patriotic songs were written in response to what were events and cultures far different from what trouble us today. We're not the only nation with a national anthem or patriotic songs, and all were written to express heartfelt commitments by those involved in their own history making.''
"Which we make every day in one way or another,'' Freddy said.
"There's always a difference in the making,'' I said, "but there's precedence to build on. There are undying principles in our history to guide those we elect, and those are to be found in the best of our patriotic songs.''
"Which we don't pay much attention to what they're all about most of the time,'' Freddy said.
"Because we take them for granted, but happy Fourth anyway,'' I said.
"And raise a glass to our guys over there,'' Freddy said, "because some of them won't be celebrating much.''
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Bill Plante is a Newbury resident and a staff columnist.
