It dawned on me the other night where it all went wrong. At least from one perspective.
Here I was thinking the Buy-Centennial Sell-Abration was only supposed to last for one year. 1976, if anyone is keeping track. Apparently I misunderstood. Apparently it was intended to last much longer.
At least it seems to have lasted that way.
–Calvin Coolidge
Did you know you can purchase a white chocolate (i.e. cocoa butter) replica of the Capitol building? What could be more patriotic than eating that? 
And you can also get a dark chocolate (i.e. chocolate) replica of the Washington Monument. What could be more phallic than that?
I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m glad so many other people have finally noticed this. But it’s not like it is news. And pardon those of us who have understood this for as long as we can remember and have trouble working up a good hysteria.
So kill your son
And I’d rather have
my country die for me
It’s like the gorillas. When there are too many young males in a band, the silverbacks (the old dudes who own everything (in this case, the right to procreate)) chase the blackbacks away, where they form wandering bands which try to annihilate one another. Isn’t it sad that someone like Gerge W. Bush could rise to the position of supreme silverback-in-chief?
Dude, I thought we had evolved.
Anyway. So back in 1976 they decide that patriotism should really be a good sales pitch. The resignation of Richard Nixon left us with Gerald Ford as president, such a walking black hole of capability that even the people who tried to assassinate him were disabled by it.
The Franklin Mint struck their first gold coin. The big music for CW folks was Convoy. That should tell you something right there about the times. Bionic Woman and Happy Days debuted on TV. Barry Manilow was writing the songs. George H. W. Bush was appointed head of the CIA. And that’s just January. It was downhill from there.
An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale killed 22,778 in Guatemala and Honduras. The U.S. performed a nuclear test at a Nevada Test Site. China performed a nuclear test in Xinjiang. The U.S.S.R. (remember them?) performed a nuclear test in Eastern Kazakhstan.
The U.S. performed a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site. The U.S. performed a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site. The U.S. performed a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site. The U.S. performed a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site. France performed a nuclear test at Muruora Island…on my birthday, no less. The U.S.S.R. performed a nuclear test in eastern Kazakhstan. The U.S.S.R performed a nuclear test in eastern Kazakhstan.
Whew!
Mozambique closed its border with Rhodesia. Hasn’t that worked out well? There was war in the Western Sahara.
Isabel Peron was deposed…and I don’t mean by a lawyer. My Fair Lady opened. I’m sure that in some strange way, these events gave birth to the child, Evita. Only Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice know for sure.
Karen Anne Quinlan was disconnected. These dudes out in California, Wozniak and Jobs, started this weird company. Deng Xiaoping was fired. Marcus Welby retired. So did Lowell Thomas.
Swine flu was the disease of the times. Cub centerfielder Rick Monday rescued the U.S. flag from 2 fans trying to set it on fire. The International Bill of Rights went into effect, when 35 nations ratified it. Only 35 countries. The US was not one of them, of course. I was ashamed. I still am.
Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody went gold. The Teton Dam in Idaho burst. We had Soweto Day: the day the student riots in Soweto began. You know, apartheid?
The Gong Show premiered on TV (times have changed… in the interest of patriotism, this is now known as America’s Idol). Viking 1 went into orbit around Mars. In the interest of patriotism, I think this means we… meaning the US… own that planet. Or sumpin.
The first woman was admitted to Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The Seychelles became an independent country and all I got was this pretty stamp. Chris Evert beat Yvonne Goolagong and Bjorn Borg defeated Ilie Nastase at Wimbledon. The Israelis invaded Uganda. You may have seen the movie.
And then came the Fourth of July. Like all other years before then and after then it was time to celebrate WAR. Stuff happens, but when it is all said and done, it is time for us to go participate in a war simulation and ooh and ah at the pretty bombs. I’ve never though it was a great idea, but nobody ever asked me.
And your children can be inducted into the culture of war.
So kill your son
You can be the first one on your block
to have your boy come home in a box
And maybe you’ll get to see a pretty light show for your trouble.
Indoctrinate early. The business of America is business is War, because War’s good business. Always has been and always will be. We can blow ’em up with the best of them. Blow’d up real good. It’s patriotic to blow it up.
Somewhere in the up above, I graduated from Portland State University. We were waiting for grad school in mathematics to start in Eugene. Patriotism was on sale everywhere, but we were broke…struggling to make it until school started in September…and couldn’t buy any. I’ve never missed it.
So kill your son
And I’d rather have my country die for
…for all people within its borders
But then, what do I know?
 Fire Works
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Because of the weather, July 4th has been cancelled in Bloomfield. It will be held next Friday instead.
All sales are final.
Robyn
PS: Confections can be purchased at Chocolate, Chocolate in Washington, DC.
& now mrD is too!
… I was in NYC, my first try at moving here (didn’t work, fled back to the Midwest in a Plath-ish haze and promptly went insane). I was having trouble with my hosts, ended up alone, watching fireworks on a small black & white TV, crying in self-imposed woe.
Great essay … one of your best, imo.
…but, of course, some of the details had escaped me. Thanks for reminding.
I don’t even remember what I was doing. All I know is that I was pretty clueless about too many of these things you’ve written about. Perhaps there’s a reason why I forgot.
Love the poem!!!
in the graphic…
and this thought of Roybn’s: Indoctrinate early. fills me with sadness.
They sure do know how to package their idea of patriotism.
In 1976 I had my first real boyfriend, and we were having floods in the spring and had a huge snowstorm in the winter. Thats about all I remember.
The art work was fab, and the poem too. You certainly kept up the quality of the day. 🙂