Anyone who knows me know that as I get dressed in the morning, I watch Saved By the Bell. I have been doing this for too many years, and I will continue to do this for as long as the show is syndicated. Period.
With that, I was watching Zack and the gang spend the summer at the Malibu Sands Beach Club when my viewing sparked a blog entry about the Fourth of July (you know, not that the Fourth of July is coming up or anything).
We all know the episode: All the girls compete in the Miss Liberty Pageant, Zack is the tie-breaking judge, and he picks Kelly over his momentary love interest Stacey. Things happen, Stacey gets over it, Lisa goes to the dance with Slater (I know, right?), and everyone lives happily ever after until the following week when they have to beat North Beach in a volleyball game and shenanigans ensue.
Anyhow, what I found to be most interesting about this episode were the answers the girls give when they’re asked what the Fourth means to them. Stereotypically of Ms. Turtle, (but sadly also most representative of our society,) she replies, “fun, fireworks, and 50 percent off at all major department stores!”
Now, Stacey and Kelly give traditionally sappy answers about fireworks and family (even throwing around buzz words like “freedom”), and everyone politely claps. But when you think about it, we’ve truly forgotten he meaning of the Fourth of July, and I’ll be backing that statement up right… now.
CuteOverload.com
InnocentEnglish.com
DailyKitten.com
DailyPuppy.com
KittenWar.com
CuteLittleKittens.com
BabyAnimalz.com
ThingsThatMakeYourGoAahh.com
DailyCuteness.com
AnimalPhotos.info
How, you may ask, do these sites represent all that’s wrong with how we appreciate the sacrifices made by our ancestors? Inherently, they do not. However, when you go to popular “news” site, Digg, you’ll find that a top article about Obama yields 701 “diggs,” one about McCain yields 644 “diggs,” and the 10 Most Amazingly Funny Baby Pictures You Never Want to Miss comes in with 1412 “diggs” (more than the aforementioned combined for you humanities majors). Think adorable babies are the only things that could beat out presidential nominees during an election year?
If so, avert your eyes now. That way, you won’t find out that more people are interested in whether or not sleeping with a robot hooker is considered cheating than they are with politics.
Calling our society, as a whole, vacuous isn’t fair or accurate. But back in the 17th and 18th Centuries, do you think your long-since-dead relatives fought for political freedom in hopes that less 232 years later you’d spend more time looking into iPhones, internet porn, and baby animals rather than upholding their vision?
The legislative branch of our political system is specifically designed to empower citizens with the ability to affect change, and we completely take that for granted. We vote for American Idols, Celebrity Dancers, Food Network Stars,
Yes, our predecessors gave their lives so that we could have the freedom to post crap wherever we wanted (hence the 1st Amendment), but I doubt they were expecting it to be an “either or” situation, where either we actively participate in democracy or we watch the Obama Girl shake up YouTube.
The Fourth of July is around the corner, and people are planning on going to the beach, eating BBQ food, saving money on large appliances, and watching stuff blow up. Instead, I propose that we do a little bit of thinking about what we’re even celebrating, how it’s evolved, and how we can get it back.
Unless you’re kitten is wrapped in a flag or the Constitution, I don’t want to see it this Fourth of July.
Jackie for AMP3pr.com
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