The 4th of July

Yes, yes, yes, it is that time again. Break out the BBQ, fire up the coals, get ready for the fireworks ... it's time to celebrate. This is a big day for Americans, that's for sure, but what is it exactly they are celebrating? This is not a question that just sprang to mind. I've been asking it for most of my life. Most Americans will tell you, it was on July 4, 1776 that America declared its independence from Britain and became a new nation (though it took a war and 13 more years to establish that fact), signaling a new era in the development of the nation-state and enshrining freedom and liberty as the hallmarks of this new phase of existence.

Now, I really don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but right here at the outset, I find myself confused. Historians agree that the Peace of Westphalia (1648) marks the birth of the modern nation-state. The USA certainly wasn't the first, and as we have seen over the course of the last 366 years, nation-states come and go. Just ask Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, if you don't believe me. There are older people in the Czech Republic who have had three different nationalities in their lifetime and they've never left their village. Just what kind of a role does the nation really play in our lives?

And how is it that these people -- or any of us for that matter -- become citizens? I have an American passport because I was born there. How did I come to be born there? The luck of the draw. There is no rational reason why I couldn't have been born in Sub-Saharan Africa or in China or Tibet, or on some Lapp island above the Artic Circle. We place absolutely no value on chance or coincidence in any other aspect of our lives, but when it comes to which passport you can get, one's place of birth is a really big deal. A mere chance event has everything to say about one's loyalties, one's obligations, and one's commitments. Why is it only applicable in this case?

OK, maybe it's about the ideas of Freedom and Liberty. Well, back there in 1776, only white, male property owners were free. There was still indentured servitude; women were chattel; slavery was not only legal but acceptable, and we were on the threshold of carrying out the systematic and ruthless genocide of all those people who were there before the Europeans came to "settle this savage land". What does freedom and liberty mean to these people? And, how free is a country with a concentration camp in Guantanamo where they can send their own citizens without due process (provisions of the NDAA)? How free is a country which brutally suppresses peace demonstrations (cf. reaction to the Occupy movement)? How free is a country that spies upon and collects data on its citizenry for no other reason than they they can? How free is a country that enslaves its more fortunate young people with life-long debt and which denies opportunites to its less fortunate (read: poor) youth? How free is a country that blatantly expects more for itself than for any other country (say, like Iraq)?

Don't get me wrong: I love holidays as much as the next fellow, maybe even more. I love celebrating and having a good time and being able to spend quality time with family and friends. You will have to excuse me, however, if I don't get all choked up and teary-eyed. I'm saving that for such a time that the USA (or any other country, for that matter) actually makes an honest attempt to live up to the ideals they claim to hold so highly. If you want me on your side, walk the walk, don't just talk the talk.

The luck of the Irish

I've often wondered where that saying came from. One of these days, I'm going to look it up. One of these days. Being of Irish extraction (my ancestors emigrated to the US in the mid-19th century from County Down in what is these days Northern Ireland (it wasn't then). From what I can tell, some of them were originally from there, and some ended up there having been driven out of mostly likely Scotland. Neither part of the clan struck me as being particularly lucky though. In fact, were I to choose a family motto for a crest we'll never have, I'd choose "If it weren't for bad luck, we'd have no luck at all." Yes, luck plays an enormous role in all our lives, whether we want to admit it or not.

You think I'm exaggerating. Everyone always thinks I'm exaggerating. I'm not. I don't need to. I've told them a thousand times, "I'm not exaggerating" and they still don't believe me. So, how's this? True story:

I don't play the lottery. OK, no big deal, a lot of people don't. I mean, what are your chances of winning the big jackpot. For all of you who aren't real strong on statistics and probability, your chances of picking the six correct numbers out of 49 are less that one in 13,000,000. No, your chance is not non-existant, and some people get lucky, but a lot more than 13,000,000 who play don't. For that reason, I would only play when the jackpot was "worthwhile"; that is, if there was more than 13,000,000 of whatever was being paid out, I'd take my shot. As fate would have it, though, there was series of non-hits as there is from time to time and the jackpot by this time had doubled to almost €26,000,000. I did a couple of quick in-the-head, rule-of-thumb calculations and figured that if I won, I could probably quit my job. I'd have to move, of course, but I wouldn't have to go job-hunting when I did. But that's not the point.

When the results were published, I knew my lottery-playing days were over. I had managed to miss every single number drawn by +/-1 for all six numbers. A 3 was drawn, I had picked a 4; a 15 was drawn, I had a 14, and so it goes, through all six numbers and to make the delight even more complete, the German lottery pulls an extra Super Number to get you the total jackpot and, yes, I missed that by 1 place as well: a 8 was drawn, I had a 9. And so it goes. I'm not a big fan of omens, but to me that was without a doubt the clearest Cosmic When-Are-You-Going-To-Get-It that I had ever seen. There's no such thing as a near-miss. What I had was a near-hit. What are the chances?

Not being a probability guru, I didn't bother trying to figure out what the chances are that you can get seven +/-1 near-hits in two drawings in one session, but I'm guessing it's at least 1 in 13,000,000 or less.

That's my luck, I've got Irish ancestry. Maybe I don't need to look up what the luck of the Irish means. I think I know.