Philadelphia, 240 Years Later

On the occasion of Independence Day ("Fourth of July" is a calendar date while "Independence Day" is the name of the occasion; even the British have a Fourth of July) my wife and I got together with some other U.S. expatriates in my town last evening.  Not like the Independene Days of the past.  We all sensed that there was a damper on things, caused by the policies of the Obama presidency.  And while it would not be fair to say that everyone at the gathering is a Trump supporter (few of us were unabashed in backing him), it would be an accurate statement to say that none of the attendees at the gathering expect a Hillary Clinton presidency to fix things significantly.  It all boils down to a "who would be the least worst" thing.

Anyway, the discussion got to the Democratic convention coming up in Philadelphia, a city with which I have more than a little amount of familiarity.  (My mom had an aunt there, and I still have cousins who live in the city and its suburbs. Business from my Long Island law practice took me there on a number of occasions.  A former business partner of mine is now there, too.  And my wife did her undergraduate studies in Philadelphia.).

The question now is whether there will be unrest of the type seen at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.  I believe that there may well be.  Disorder has already been threatened, whether puerile or serious (i.e., the not-so-veiled threats of violence from the Sanders crowd that already was unruly in Nevada)

There will be demonstrations.  The question now remaining is how violent they will be allowed to become.

P.S.  The transit system in Philadelphia is now impaired for the summer with the removal of a significant portion of the railcar fleet on account of technical problems.

Independence Day on the 4th of July

 

I wasn't particularly planning to do a barbecue for Independence Day (which is the more formal and more appropriate name for the Fourth of July).

But my wife got a phone call from a friend of hers whom she had not seen in quite a while, what with the two women's respective personal and professional schedules (though I did run into "Vivianne" at the Post Office about 2 months ago).  The two decided to do dinner together, and my wife asked me if I would be interested in working the barbecue grill.

I replied in the affirmative, and thus the impromptu barbecue.  Vivianne brought chicken cutlets and hamburger rolls, my wife made the potato salad and hamburger patties, and I had to get the grill up and running.  Though I usually like start from wood and create my own charcoal, I decided to use our gas grill.  It needed cleaning, and the propane tank needed a refill.  After attending to those matters, we were ready to go.

It wasn't clear just who was the third wheel in that matter, me (the one man at the table with two women) or Vivianne (the widow at the table with a married couple).  Fortunately, the conversation carried reasonably well as we discussed the burning current events issues of the day, and, all in all, a very enjoyable dinner.

Nothing to report, and yet, everything to report.  We basically remembered what happened in Philadelphia on the fourth day of July in 1776.  We did not go to the various mad mob crowd events such as the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest or fireworks shows (although more than a handful of our neighbors had procured some pyrotechnic devices of questionable legality, and treated  us to fireworks displays visible from our backyard picnic table).  Just some good conversation, good food, and serious intellectual discussion about the state of affairs in America and the world.

Put another way, for us it was an Independence Day event more than a Fourth of July event.

Happy Birthday, America!