Fourth of July anecdote

In May of 2003, I was talking to two of the customers in my restaurant in San Francisco, a doctor, and his "wife," an artist, telling them that we would be closing the restaurant and had finally decided where to move to after researching all 50 states for the past year. When I told them where, they both said, "Oh, no! That's a little hick town full of rednecks."

I said, "I know. That's why I picked it. I'll fit right in."

"But joking aside, why there?" they asked.

"For two reasons," I replied: "the cool coastal climate and the politics,"

Then they said, "Well, the country-side around there is beautiful and the Oregon coast is fabulous but the politics stinks. We were driving up the Oregon coast last year and decided to stop there for the night. It was the afternoon of the Fourth of July and they were having some damn silly parade. It was so hokey and dumb that we went to the local movie theater and watched some crappy movie rather than be subjected to their small-town small-minded patriotism. Are you sure you can tolerate that sort of mentality?"

"I'm sure," I answered, adding; "that's precisely why I am leaving San Francisco and moving to the good old patriotic USA. Goodbye and don't bang your high and mighty big heads on the door on your way out."

Actually I didn't say that last sentence - but I thought it and later wished I had said it.

"All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day [Independence Day] forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."

Thomas Jefferson wrote that on June 24, 1826 in his last significant letter before his death on July 4, 1826.