Another Glorious Fourth

Our newspaper opted not to print on the Federal holiday.  Not enough print readers.  Not enough money to pay enough staff to make it happen.  Don't know what stores are open this Fourth of July.  WaWa has begun its Hoagiefest.  Pharmacies usually open.  Department stores vary but no interest to going to any.  Parks often have their big day.  And Torah gets read in places that can assemble a minyan on Monday morning.  There are fireworks in some places, though fewer as pyrotechnic safety experts have participated in the Great Resignation.  And wife sings in a concert this afternoon, my only really desired destination for this holiday.

Fourth of July has always been a demarcation point ever since I entered the medical world.  Promotions from one stage of student or resident traditionally commenced on July 1, though for the last twenty or so years the transition really occurs about ten days earlier.  For many, the holiday is a day on call, the first of many days they will work when everyone else seems off.  For me it is a more generic time landmark, conclusion of my last set of six-month initiatives with a few days to get acclimated to the next set.

And it's been a good start.  Three of my projects require making my house more habitable, two directly, one indirectly.  And I've been doing that.  This being the first Monday, I get my baseline anthropological measurements, as I have substituted weight, waist, and BP targets for the treadmill intensities I pursued last time.  One project has already failed.  The Anniversary gift I wanted to spend money on exceeds by far the amount I had intended to spend.  There will still be a gift, just one of better enduring value.  

I've not undertaken them mental challenges yet.  They await, though not for very long.

Happy Birthday America.

A Glorious Fouth

4Jy comes on a Sunday this year, so celebrate today, postpone workday holiday.  Something of double whammy for the new medical residents, perhaps.  I put on a USA t-shirt but have little else planned, as the holiday also starts the part of my half year when I am most enthusiastic about forging ahead.  Done a few things already though not yet those hard work initiatives.  Maybe start some of those before the fireworks that I don't plan to attend go off.  

While my daily task list has ample amusements, I feel more directed this holiday to efforts that move me ahead even if the steps are only small increments that enable achievement of what I set out to perform months from now.  Perhaps I should change the approach and get some of those things I really don't like doing but have to like the treadmill completed first, a few other things that linger undone on my daily task list checked off once and for all if they the types of activities that do not reappear once done.  My stash of $5 bills collected as change this half year amounts to $50 + $35 unspent from the last half of the previous year.  Things I need I just buy, things I want but don't need come from that collection.  I don't really want much.  Maybe experiences more than things.  Adventures in nearby and distant travel, some creativity that I make excuses not to pursue, some creations from my kitchen or sampling the best of somebody else's brew tank.  4Jy in its original was really about hitting a collective reset button for new adventures.

Machshava for Independence Day

Moshe Taragin: Democracy and its Demons :Thoughts Upon Democracy and Religion

https://www.yutorah.org/sidebar/lecture.cfm/927500/rabbi-moshe-taragin/democracy-and-its-demons-thoughts-for-july-4-and-independence-day/

Rather interesting article in anticipation of American Independence Day written by an American expatriate who teaches in Israel, which in some ways is more of an idealized democracy than America and in other ways less so. While I may be the prototype of a democracy enthusiasts, he sees some areas that leave room for improvement.

1.Rampant Individualism, Perhaps the greatest challenge which democracy poses is the emphasis upon the individual and his liberties.

While individualism prevails and has been the one force that unleashed talent, I do not think historically it was limited to democracy as an ideology. Europeans were taking it upon themselves to explore the world or science during even the most repressive environments. People who excelled in the yeshivot were rewarded for their individual achievements. Democracy did not create this but it expanded the number of participants and the talents they brought to the table.

Americans, for all the focus on individual rights, did not neglect the collective needs, sometimes good, sometimes not. Slavery for all its evils, had an economic benefit to those not enslaved. We have investment in railroads, land grant colleges, mandated land for public schools, an interstate highway system, and the Homestead Act. We mobilize effective armies, and protect assembly rights so that people can band together to pool overlapping needs. It's not all Hillel's "if I am only for myself what am I?"

2. A Life of Rights and a Life of Duty

Again, not unique to democracy. Since this comes from Israel, this American's view of negotiation typically has the Islamic side proposing gimmees with a paucity of concessions. That's not democracy and it's not duty. "We demand ours now" is that Life of Rights, though they might argue that recovering that land is their duty.

In America we protect our rights but we also have obligations, usually imposed by law. It is my right to drive on the highways but my duty to do this safely. We had a military draft for 100 years.

We accept a duty to be non-discriminatory as our laws require. Some of us go beyond that, expanding our need to protect others. While charity is regarded as voluntary, Americans in general and Jewish Americans in particular have show ourselves mostly generous.

3. The Tyranny of Moral Relativism

This may be the Achilles Heel of democracy as we know it. Live and let live has its historical tensions, again not unique to democracy. We had Crusades and we had institutional anti-semitism in the name of absolute morality assessments in the name of the one true religion long before there were elected governments. In America we had a centuries long approach to slavery that said states could decide on their own, who am I in Massachusetts to dictate the reality in Alabama? We have that now in our abortion debates. Elective pregnancy termination is widely accepted in parts of Asia and in Canada. These people who live among us are not evil. Why not accept their belief while I adhere to mine? I observe kosher laws and shabbos which are commandments of God but have no reason to impose them on anyone else. I do not need to be armed, but maybe somebody else lives in more fear than me. I think the moose is a magnificent beast who should live the way nature intended and agree that meat should be farmed and ritually slaughtered. Others take pride in the ability to gather their own food made more certain with a rifle. All of these are moral relativism, appropriate to the political debates that we have. They are not tyranny. Absolutism creates tyranny.

Good article. Made me think about America on the Glorious 4th.

s of a Life of Duty