What is one of your favorite things about your country?
As flawed as we are, it is still the best place for opportunity for an ambitious and talented person. Am reminded of the Bill Graham quote about the Grateful Dead: “they may not be the best at what they do, but they are the only ones who do it!” I am lucky enough to have traveled and seen just how fucked up the world is. Doesn’t mean we don’t need a lot to work on, but in America there is always hope.
What is your favorite thing to do on your country’s national holiday?
It is best summed up by a quote from HJ Simpson – “What better way to celebrate our nation’s independence than by blowing up a small part it.”
What do you usually do for your country’s national holiday?
Didn’t we just address that above? I guess I didn’t. We watch from home, here’s why. We live way East of town, up on a hill. Specifically, Denver is famously 5280 feet, my house is at 6200 feet. So, from my porch, we can see West all the way from Castle Rock on the South end to Boulder at the North. For free, we gather with the neighbors at one of our yards and sit around and watch the city explode with light. Last night, around 9:15 pm, we could see 6 or 7 different professional firework displays at the same time.
What is your favorite national/regional ethnic dish?
Does it have to be my region, or ethnicity? My favorite dish, ‘ethnic’ or otherwise, is the gyro sammich. When done right (which is almost never the case), it is the perfect sammich on every level. Sadly, I spent a good 20 minutes last night chatting with one of my neighbors about the perfect gyro.
Who is your favorite national hero and why?
Nelson Mandela. Not my nation, mind you, but what he did for South Africa transcends all of this. After spending decades in prison, unjustly… upon his freedom he went on to be president of South Africa. What a hero. Jesus may have died for our sins, but Mandela lived for them!
Side note – why didn’t they kill him? Why keep the most famous prisoner on Earth? I am beyond thankful he lived a long and fruitful life. If I were the bad guys, though, I would have just disappeared him. Had they done that, he would be an obscure footnote that no one remembered.
I am Correct 