Happy Fourth of July!

Hello everyone!  I just wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe Fourth of July today.  For those of you that read my blog and don’t live in the United States (and therefore are not as familiar with our customs), I probably need to explain why we Americans feel the need to wish each other safety on this day.  In order to do that, I’ll need to explain a little bit about American History.  Don’t worry, I’ll keep it brief.

Every year on July 4th, we celebrate the anniversary of when the representatives of the British colonies all signed a document called the Declaration of Independence.  I highly recommend reading the original document, but it basically boiled down to the colonists saying “we are no longer part of the British Empire.”  Oddly enough, we do not celebrate the anniversary of when the British government replied with “wanna bet?”

This started a long and bloody war where the colonists fought to liberate themselves from the tyranny of King George the Mad.  Yes, we know that he was neither mad nor a tyrant, but saying that we fought against “George the Third” doesn’t sound anywhere near as cool or interesting.  After a war against the British that lasted nine years, the United States was a free and independent country.

Now, having just come out of a war where we were constantly being shot at by British muskets, and were our troops were being decimated by enemy cannon fire, the early Americans naturally decided that the best way to celebrate our independence was by shooting muskets and firing cannons.  Because we’re kind of weird like that.  Modern Americans are a bit more sane.  We just play with explosives.  I would emphasize that we’re not playing with high explosives, but there are some Americans that do just that.

So, in celebration of our constitutional right to blow ourselves up, I hope all of my fellow Americans have a fun time with their fireworks this Independence Day.  Unless you live in a state that bans fireworks that is, in which case…um…at least you don’t have to worry about losing any of your fingers today. Yay?