“This young century will be liberty’s century.” – President Bush

Happy Fourth of July!

Remember the first time you felt truly independent? Was it because of that first paycheck you could spend any way you wanted? Maybe that first time you drove your very own car?

Remember your own personal declaration of independence? Leaving home, getting married, getting divorced?

Did it make you feel powerful? Do you still feel powerful? What have you done with your power?

“Use power to help people. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people.” – President Bush.

We live in the most powerful nation in the world, possibly the most self-serving, and probably the most dependent. We depend on oil. According to the technology think tank, Globalis International, every man woman and child in this country uses approximately 2,500 gallons of the stuff each year. We don’t just drive our cars or heat our homes; we wear artificial limbs and false teeth. We insecticide our lawns, replace heart valves, weave bandages, and pay for it all, toys to fuel, with credit cards.

“The California crunch really is the result of not enough power-generating plants and then not enough power to power the power of generating plants.” – President Bush.

We depend on water. These statistics drown all other dependencies. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, we extract 408 billion gallons of water per day! Forty-eight percent of that water cools electrothermal power plants: coal furnaces and nuclear reactors generating even more power for our nation of energy gluttons.

“Free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don’t attack each other.” – President Bush.

According to the CIA “World Factbook,” since the day we invaded Iraq, our cost per person to pay for the war has broken the $10,000 mark. And our overall national debt exceeds $30,000 each. If you combine that with our personal debt, the average American this Fourth of July owes $161,287. And, alarmingly, more than 25 percent of our indebtedness is to foreign nations, foreign corporations, and foreign individuals.

“Our nation is somewhat sad, but we’re angry. There’s a certain level of blood lust, but we won’t let it drive our reaction. We’re steady, clear-eyed and patient, but pretty soon we’ll have to start displaying scalps.” – President Bush.

And scalps we have displayed. In fact, one in every 10,000 Americans has died or been seriously injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. If every casualty knew a hundred folks that would have danced at their wedding or grieved at their funeral, then one in a hundred of us now knows an official victim of the war.

“Today we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation’s promise through civility, courage, compassion and character.” – President Bush.

The national coalition on health care points out that in 2005 we spent an average of $6,700 per person on health care and $1,000 of the $6,700 went for paperwork, not medicine. Additionally the premium paid by folks lucky enough to have health insurance exceeded $4,200 per individual.

The coalition also advises that elders squirrel away at least $200,000 for uncovered medical expenses they will incur after 65.

What, too “independent” to see the doctor – 28 percent of Americans admitted to having delayed getting health care simply because they couldn’t afford it.

I don’t know about civility, but courage sure comes in handy.

Enough grumbling, it’s Independence Day in the home of the brave: even if the land of the free has vanished. Unless of course, you’re Scooter Libby!

Our president, capital punishment’s biggest fan, finds 30 months “excessive”!

“I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well.” – President Bush.

By all means, preserve executive power. After all, predecessors are our future.

“You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.” – President Bush.

For those of you who still cling to the concept of liberty, your self-determination this Independence Day lies in your own hands.

Ahhh, why bother? As your commander-in-chief once said, “A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there’s no question about it.”

Pat LaMarche of Yarmouth is the author of “Left Out In America: the state of homelessness in the United States.” She can be contacted at PatLaMarche@hotmail.com.