Tag: Independence Day

Categories
Community Politics

Day 2011 and Happy 250th Birthday America

As I shook off my sleep this morning, I started the day with a cup of coffee (since after that tea debacles it was coffee powered our revolution) and the NPR news brief.

Their five minute top of the hour news roundups was once my favored way of staying up on national & global news. Nostalgia made me turn it on today. I wanted to feel the patriotism comes from owning one’s responsibility to be an informed citizen.

Fourth of July being Independence Day, I am excited by civic pride that comes with informed self governance. What better way to celebrate the United States Semiquincentennial.

Our great American experiment celebrates 250 years of independence from Great Britain. As a singular nation state, committed self evident truths such as all men being equal in our unalienable right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

We say America is a unique and improbable miracle. And many of us remain as committed to the founding fathers’ ethos of self-governance because we are taught that we all must make sacrifices to maintain ordered liberty.

Part of my commitment to being a free American is working towards a higher standard of informed civics. So it felt appropriate to begin this important day of celebration by engaging with the issues of the moment. I hoped NPR might be a part of that.

I have always loved radio (I even worked at an infamous station as a teen). I enjoy eccentric public access Art Bell style shows, opinion shock jocks, and folksy variety shows. Yet it was National Public Radio’s news coverage that was my family’s constant companion for remaining engaged with the public discourse.

We didn’t always have the money for expensive newspapers subscriptions for newspapers like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal so I’d read at the library. But at home I could always rely on NPR.

There was a time when a public radio station, which was free for all Americans who wished to listen, was a source of national civic pride. I was taught it was our patriotic duty to be informed citizens. Plus they played great music from variety shows to classical.

So it was with some sadness that the very first story in the roundup that while the majority of Americans are proud to be an American they also believe we have shifted away from our founding ideals. Half of us don’t even know 4th of July commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence so I can’t blame anyone for having worries.

Yet, as you might expect, some of this is mere partisan politics. It will shift just as our political system has always does. The negativity need not be the focus. Even in dark times we must reach for the light.

How proud are you to be an America ?

Interestingly younger generations are more likely than older generations to say America aligns with our founding ideals. And I have to say this aligns with my personal experience.

I have been privileged to work on passing laws that reinforces our core constitutional rights alongside investing in the hard infrastructure work of developing cheaper energy. From our right to compute to the our nuclear renaissance that bloomed in one year from a single executive order, I’ve never felt as engaged with the process of building our nation.

Every day offers us a chance to celebrate our innate freedoms. And I’d like it if our public institutions felt similarly not matter who the people choose as our representatives. We have always been an imperfect nation.

The American experiment is ongoing. Our many problems are real but it is equally true that we have never been more empowered to engage with building the country you wish to see. Happy Birthday America. May we celebrate her today, tomorrow and another 250 years into the future.

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Categories
Startups Travel

Day 2001 and My Odyssey Continues

A vast somewhat intimidating vista is stretching ahead of me between two thousand days of writing every day and the possibility of reaching three thousand days of writing every day. One day and one post at a time right?

So like any sane woman setting out on a long journey, I ate a salad, had some protein and checked myself into a spa for a massage. No reason to start a long journey exhausted right? I need to pace myself.

I got a pedicure to immediately turn restoration to grooming necessities, but one can’t keep pool blue toenails all summer. Not every day is spent on the Ionian. Some days are spent at nuclear facilities in steel toed boots. Other days are spent in kitten heels inside conference rooms.

Just in case anyone does need to see my toes after those scenarios, I try to maintain a tidy nude set of nails. Isn’t it strange what expectations we have for women?

I may work remotely, at odd hours and in odd locations that allow the occasional eccentricity, but at any moment I might need to be on an airplane headed to parts unknown. You only get to be so weird when you have big goals.

In this case, next week I’m headed to a desert town and then a state capital. That’s state is becoming a more regular occurrence in my life. That’s a pretty big privilege for me.

Being a supporting player in a number of larger endeavors gives me the chance to add additional gravity if and when I might be useful. Even if it is just showing up as a cheerleader. I love trying to convince smarter, better capitalized and better connected players than me that indeed it is my startups are the winners in the grand game of macro-cycles.

I wrote that the world was getting to be a lot more chaotic when I first started this writing journey. Now that’s common knowledge. Then and now, I care about adaptability to this increasing complexity. This has turned out to mean compute, energy and decentralization.

The strength of your network is in the flexibility and foresight of its nodes. And I hope I remain a trusted node at the forefront of our long journey as a species for as long as I serve us well. I’ll carry on this Odyssey till then.

Categories
Culture

Day 915 and Independence Day

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I’m proud to be an American. I am a patriot. I genuinely believe in the aspirational ideals of the United States of America.

I’m fully aware of the many millions of ways in which we’ve not lived up to founding ideals across the centuries. But I’ll be damned if I let the worst of us take away the aspirational ideals for the rest of us. The freedom to live up to our higher selves rests in each one of us. And fuck anyone who tells you otherwise.

I like to watch Roland Emmerich’s classic disaster porn cinematic masterpiece Independence Day every July 4th. The speech Bill Pullman delivers as humanity unites to fight the invading hordes of alien locusts is as inspiring a bit of cinema as I can imagine.

In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. “Mankind.” That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it’s fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom… Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution… but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: “We will not go quietly into the night!” We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on! We’re going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!

Independence Day

Now we don’t seem to be any nearer to humanity uniting behind an American plan for much of anything but I think to think one day we Americans might contribute to something as grandly aspirational as uniting our species. We can barely unite fifty states but we’ve not given up yet. And I personally intend to be here to keep fighting for our ideals. Happy 4th of July.