I forget, do Americans celebrate The 4th of July because America can kick everyone’s ass, or because we can kick anyone’s ass, be they unarmed, civilian, or collateral; and by remote, and with impunity? Americans celebrate our independence, yet we are not free, while we actively attack others to ensure they’re not either. Do you wonder if the American appetite for fireworks owes quite a bit to our never having suffered a home front war? I can’t look at these pyrotechnics without thinking that this is what the other end of the gun looks like. We sit protected, watching non-lethal Shock ‘N’ Wow demos, while for many parts of the world, such explosions terrify, re-fire PTSD, and at the least, remind millions of how they lost their loved ones.