Independent

I’m living in a state that was once a sovereign nation before the United States slipped its meddling, greedy fingers around its independent throat. A sovereign, independent, self-sufficient nation. With royal leaders and a loyal people rich in its own, and to the Anglo-Saxon visitors, savage, history. Now it is a state of the Union. A state thousands of miles from the teat from which is suckles. A state dependent on the mainland for sustenance. A state which has perhaps a week’s worth of food on the island to sustain its occupants. A state which is unable to feed its own should it be cut off. One that no longer grows its own food, but dependent on flow of food and tourism from abroad. We have made an addict and a mooch out of a once truly free and independent land. We have robbed a people of their independence to absorb them into a united nation based on the very principles we stole.

And it seems we continue to do the same abroad. Cutting other nations from the hierarchy and leadership they are accustomed, making them dependent on our security and protection. Our money and our food. Like feral animals we see in the gutter…thinking we know better…picking them out of their comfort, out of what they know. Not understanding why they fight against what we can only perceive as security and comfort. It’s good enough for us, why can’t it be good enough for them?

At the same time, we ourselves are becoming dependent on these lands…for Pacific outposts, for oil, for our own sense of pride. Refusing to look to our own. Our poor and homeless. Our hunger and lost. Ours in search of solace and refuge. Now we yank those towards us how do not seek sanctuary while pushing aside those screaming at our borders for acceptance. While we turn a blind eye to our own people crying from the gutters.

I was morbidly curious how the Fourth of July would pan out in Hawaii. There are a many proud people here. Protesters screaming for release of these islands from the union…a return to their old sovereignty.

How would Hawaiian’s celebrate a day important to the lineage of the thousands of immigrants and colonists that settled the mainland? Immigrants and colonists who sought the freedoms that the US in turn tore away from the Hawaiian people? The same way they celebrate everything else.

The Hawaiian, Polynesians, Filipinos head to the beaches and backyards to fire up the grills. Any reason to gather and eat as a family. BBQ and teriyaki. Kalua pork and poke. Food everywhere.

The Chinese embrace the noisemakers…the firecrackers and fireworks they themselves first introduced to the Western world. The twilight was resonant with the screech and pops of hundreds of gunpowder explosions.

And the military boys are placated with concerts on the bases and freely flowing beer.

But are we really celebrating? Or just using the day as another paid holiday…an excuse to eat and make merry? Without any thought or curiosity about why we create such a ruckus of light and sound in the air. Without reflecting on what it means to be free? If we are proud of our country? And if not, proud of what she has done, at least proud of what she stands for? And what is our responsibility to her? To continue the legacy of freedom and independence penned out by the founding fathers. To ensure our own feel their ancestors came here not in vane but indeed found the freedom they hoped for.

I am not proud of what the leaders of this country have done. I shutter at how other nations view our greed and callousness. But nonetheless, I am proud to be a part of this nation. And I respect with great awe the principles on which we were founded. We will find our path again.