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Patriotism
"When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

I wrote this week's meme in honor of our country's Independence Day on Monday, but really it can apply to ANY country, so if you are outside the United States, just apply the questions to your country!

1) What do you like the best about living in the United States?

I like the fact that the standard of living here is (relatively) better than all but a few other places in the world. I'm certainly not living in a country that would need the kind of help that a Live Aid-style benefit concert would provide.

2) What do you like the least about living in the United States?

The thing I like least is that we've allowed essential services such as crime prevention and public safety, health care, education and jobs to go down the toilet in recent years. We've allowed politics in this country to get far too corrupt and too far away from the concept of SERVING the people. This is still a great country, but not as great as it once was.

3) What are your plans for July 4th? (If you are not American, when is your Independence Day and what do you usually do?)

I don't really have any plans. We don't do the fireworks thing anymore, unless we go somewhere to watch them.

4) Describe your most memorable July 4th memory.

I think my best memories of this holiday are my younger years when we'd go to the Albany Timber Festival. There were logging industry-related sports as the main attraction, but there were also carnival rides and similar stuff that you'd see at a fair. At night, there would be an awesome fireworks display. That was always a fun thing to go to.

5) If you could go back in time and visit any period of time in our country's history, when would it be and why?

Can I just go back to the 1990s? Those were some good years. I'd also like to go back to the 60s to see all the great revolutionary music scenes going on. I wouldn't appreciate the Vietnam war stuff and whatnot, but I'd be there for the music. Maybe I'd even see Jimi Hendrix live? That would, literally, rock!