Declaring Independence....From Grilling

The July 4th traditions notwithstanding, it was too hot to do backyard grilling--or any cooking for that matter--so yesterday we headed to Nijiya Market where there was a broad selection of take-out Japanese dishes. There were dozens of other shoppers, mainly of the Asian persuasion, who had the same idea.

We threw sushi, ramen, salads, and barbecued chicken into the basket. We watched the fireworks from a mile away and went to bed right after. On this Independence Day we were free to engage in as much tradition as we wanted.

Five Years Ago

Five years ago July 4th was a day of personal sadness. The post is reprinted below:

Alfred, 20, in Fukuoka (1945)

My father died earlier this week.

Starting the sad process of notifications and filings, we looked high and low for his discharge papers. Then we opened his wallet. Miniaturized to the size of a credit card, they commemorated events of 72 years ago. He always carried them.

The greatest generation won a two-front war against the most powerful war machines in history, then battled a determined adversary for over 40 years, during which a misstep would have killed many millions. We owe them our independence and our very lives.

On this Independence Day we humbly give thanks.

Independence Day, 2023

Hillsdale Blvd. was closed after 5 p.m. (2022 photo).

The Foster City fireworks have become more popular among Peninsula residents.

The empty parking lots at banks, retail establishments, and commercial buildings are blocked off. The City patrols these areas and charges a steep $15 in the lots close to Leo Ryan Park.

The crowds began appearing at 11 a.m., when food trucks opened for business. Rock and country music bands, as well as kids' activities, started at noon.

As for me, the fireworks are too close to my bedtime. I strolled across the street to the shopping center and watched for a few minutes.

Happy Fourth of July!

Good night.

Admirable From a Distance

Yesterday I took a walk in Ryan Park, which was crowded with hundreds of Canadian geese.

They were rooting about, looking for the leavings from the crowd of picnickers who had come to watch the fireworks on Monday.

Dozens were waddling on the sidewalk. I could walk right up to them, though when I did so they would turn their head to glance at me sideways in case I was one of those children (or peculiar adults) who liked to chase futilely after winged creatures.

Each generation of ducks and geese becomes less fearful, probably because they've learned that humans are much more likely to feed than threaten them.

The fear went both ways. There were so many waterfowl that images from Hitchcock's The Birds rose unbidden from memory.

I quickened my pace and walked home, taking another route.

Function Over Form

It works, and there are no leaks.

In 2012 I replaced the corroded faucet in one of our bathrooms with upscale $200 fixtures (pricey ten years ago) that looked nice but became harder and harder to turn after only a few years. Worse, parts were hard to find, and the faucet was difficult to repair because the home handyman had to go underneath the sink in order to loosen and tighten the handles.

So I spent this holiday weekend installing a new faucet. (I actually consumed more time hacksawing off the old one.)

Gone was the desire to look at fancy fixtures. Easiness of installation and repair was the priority; in the future cartridge replacement will be done from the top of the sink.

Beauty lies in simplicity, not shininess.

Fulfilling the criteria was a Price Pfister $100 model. Your humble amateur do-it-yourselfer took his time--three hours--making sure that the spout and handles were straight, the hot and cold lines weren't crossed (been there!), and teflon tape was wound around each thread to protect against leaks.

I'll spend more for quality and beauty, but in the future the form of a mechanism will take a distant backseat to function.

Independence Day, 2022

Hillsdale Blvd, the busiest street in Foster City,
was closed to traffic next to Ryan Park.

After a two-year hiatus the Independence Day festivities returned to Foster City bigger than ever.

The roads surrounding Ryan Park were closed to traffic.

The viewing areas in the park have become so desirable that the City has implemented a reservation system, and families began setting up their tents before noon.

By early evening seats were at a premium, and some fireworks-watchers sat on a curb across the street, almost as if they were at a parade.

Except for the little kids who ran freely, the crowd respected each other's boundaries. It was a traditional assemblage; beer was everywhere, and I couldn't detect a whiff of marijuana.

After enjoying the ambience of a warm, humid, music-filled walk in the park, I headed home for a barbecue dinner.

The fireworks show would end close to 10 p.m., past bedtime, and I need my beauty sleep. I missed the show, but I could hear it a mile away. Maybe next year....

The Founding: It's Not Just One Thing

John Trumbull took artistic license in his 1818 painting of the presentation of the Declaration of Independence to the Continental Congress.

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik muses upon its symbolism: [bold added]

while Jefferson is prominent, it is Adams, the chief advocate of independence in the Continental Congress, who occupies the center of the canvas. Every other founder’s physique is partially obscured, while Adams can be seen in his entirety. Most great paintings give us one focal point, but this one has two.

This is appropriate, because Adams and Jefferson can be seen as the two intellectual poles of the Revolution. Jefferson was an ardent admirer of the Enlightenment and believed that the American founding would “show by example the sufficiency of human reason for the care of human affairs.” Adams also appreciated the power of reason, but like Edmund Burke across the Atlantic, he emphasized the importance of religious and moral tradition in preserving society.

In 1776 John Trumbull thought Jefferson's position on the supremacy of reason was more important than Adams' emphasis on religion, but the murderous excesses of the French Revolution showed everyone what could happen if there were no moral counterweight to an absolutist government.

We see echoes of that government-religion conflict today in President Biden's support not only for abortion rights but for government funding of abortions. The latter was a bridge too far for the American Catholic church, which is debating whether to deny communion to the Catholic President. Your humble blogger believes that the legalization and public financing of abortion is properly a political issue, while granting or withholding communion is a matter to be worked out between the church and its members.

What is profoundly disturbing are statements by politicians that the church should be subservient to government, at least in this matter:

Rep. Jared Huffman of California, an “avowed nontheist,” responded: “If they’re going to politically weaponize religion by ‘rebuking’ Democrats who support women’s reproductive choice, then a ‘rebuke’ of their tax-exempt status may be in order.”

(Image source here)

The fact that Rep. Huffman feels free to threaten the Catholic Church with taxation--and potentially its destruction-- (“the power to tax involves the power to destroy") shows how far protection of religion and other First Amendment rights have fallen in importance to those who advocate the accretion of even more power to central government.

Nevertheless, despite such importunate statements, your humble blogger has, yes, faith that the principles espoused by Jefferson, Adams, and the other founders will prove to be far more resilient than present-day efforts to cast them aside.

May you and your loved ones, dear reader, have a restorative 4th of July.

Independence Day, 2020: I've Stopped Looking For a Pony

(Business Insider image)

The headlines about President Trump's speech on Independence Day eve were uniformly negative, so I decided to exercise my right to independent thought by reading his speech in its entirety (after the break at bottom) before checking out the reviews.

A generation ago you wouldn't have blinked at most of the speech: praise for American exceptionalism, the words and deeds of the Founders, the great inventions and triumphs ("electricity, split the atom, and gave the world the telephone and the Internet. We settled the Wild West, won two World Wars, landed American astronauts on the Moon"), and a recitation of the accomplishments of the four Presidents on Mount Rushmore.

The latter allowed the President to transition to a condemnation of those who tear down monuments (he was careful not to mention Confederate symbols). He then levied a much broader attack against

“Cancel Culture"— driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees. This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and our values...

In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished.

Throughout his term the President has been called every name in the book, including Nazi and dictator, so his opponents won't like it that he's calling them the Fascists and totalitarians.

Actually, I've decided not to read the reviews because I know they're going to say what they've been saying for the past 3½ years: the President is divisive, he's firing up his base, he's a racist and white supremacist.

From Russian collusion to the Ukraine-whatever-that-was to the emoluments clause to the Logan Act to the climate denialism to the #MeToo movement that toppled mostly Democrats to the Trumpian over- then under-reaction to the coronavirus the media has been shoveling a lot of [stuff] since 2016 and affecting outrage throughout.

I used to trust their profession of journalistic principles to believe that they had something, but frankly I've stopped looking for a pony.

Independence Day, 2019

Alfred, 20, in Fukuoka (1945)

My father died earlier this week.

Starting the sad process of notifications and filings, we looked high and low for his discharge papers. Then we opened his wallet. Miniaturized to the size of a credit card, they commemorated events of 72 years ago. He always carried them.

The greatest generation won a two-front war against the most powerful war machines in history, then battled a determined adversary for over 40 years, during which a misstep would have killed many millions. We owe them our independence and our very lives.

On this Independence Day we humbly give thanks.

Independence Day, 2018

Eclectic people meet eclectic food.

We headed over to Duane and Sandy's house in Hayward. They've been hosting 4th of July parties--really an open house where you can come and go as you please without anyone knowing you even showed up---for the 40 years we've known them.

We talked to the hosts and a few friends who had retired and fled to Reno.

Leo Ryan Park, Foster City

California is looking less appealing with 9.3%-13.3% income tax rates plus threats to revive the California tax on estates above $5.45 million (not that we necessarily have that problem, but why take chances?).

Also, there's a lot of meanness, anger, and self-righteousness, as well as smoke, in the air these days, and President Trump isn't helping either. On this Independence Day, it's time to seriously look at Goodbye, California.

Oh, yes, Happy 4th!

Happy 4th!

(Photo from Foster City Current newsletter)

Independence Day

It's not Thanksgiving, but on the nation's 240th birthday Time lists 240 Reasons to Celebrate America (Right Now).

From national parks to restaurants to education to the arts and the world's most thriving economy, there's a lot to be thankful for. Most of all, we're grateful for Americans' "can-do" attitude, generosity, and openness to innovation, the spirit that still keeps it young after 240 years. A few from the list:

Item #233 - Giving Back is a Birthright:

Philanthropy as we understand it today, however, is a distinctly American phenomenon, inseparable from the nation that shaped it. From colonial leaders to modern billionaires like Buffett, Gates and Zuckerberg, the tradition of giving is woven into our national DNA.

America’s philanthropic instinct is not limited to the rich. The nation’s history is rife with people like Oseola McCarty, a Mississippi washerwoman who gave away her life savings of $150,000 in 1995 to fund college scholarships for low-income students with promise.

Item #64 - The Death of the Bookstore was Greatly Exaggerated:

independent bookstores are actually really healthy....the number of [bookstores] actually increased, from 1,712 to 1,775. Counting multiple locations, the total climbed to 2,311. You can’t even call it a fluke, because this is the seventh straight year it’s happened.

The numbers are growing because business is growing...according to consumer research by Nielsen, that the best method for book discovery is still standing in a roomful of books and browsing–ahead even of click-tracking, data-mining if-you-liked-this-you’ll-like-that algorithms.

Item #52 - Freedom:

Dolly Parton: My mama and daddy instilled in me the belief that this country is the greatest place on earth and that our freedoms were hard earned on the backs of our forefathers. I’ve never taken that for granted and I know that it’s because of their sacrifices that I get to live out my dreams. All of us should see freedom as a gift; my goal is to treasure that gift every single day.

Ducks at the Church (Parking Lot)

After the July 4th fireworks last night lagoon ducks understandably sought quiet elsewhere. This morning three were found resting quietly in the church parking lot. Ducks know that cars will give them a wide berth; they're getting awfully comfortable around humans, n'est–ce pas?

In observance of Independence Day weekend the congregation belted out national songs and the quintessential American hymn Amazing Grace. Below is a recent rendition of Amazing Grace by Jenny Oaks Baker, violin, and Condoleeza Rice, piano.

Yes, that Condoleeza Rice: Stanford University Professor, Stanford Provost, the first female African-American Secretary of State and National Security Advisor. She's an outstanding amateur pianist, an expert on Eastern Europe and--politically incorrect observation--physically attractive. It's a sign of our political dysfunction that no one thinks of her as, nor does she want to be, a candidate for the Presidency.

Independence Day, 2015

The view from Beach Park Bridge: boats, canoes, and paddleboards head to the fireworks

Residents chattered away in multiple languages as they awaited the fireworks. Beach Park Bridge is less than a mile away from from Ryan Park, and the view is perfectly adequate for those who wish to avoid the crowds and minimize damage to their eardrums. After dusk's last light the fireworks began at 9:30 p.m. and culminated 20 minutes later in a pyrotechnic paroxysm that had the crowd oohing and aahing.

Another reason to like the view from the bridge: it's only a 10-minute walk home.

Concentrate on Your Driving

Independence Day / privacy advice: DON'T pair your smartphone via Bluetooth with rental cars.

When you connect your gadget to a car with Bluetooth, the car stores your phone number to make it easier to connect later. It also stores your call logs, including any contacts you dialed. Just one problem: All that information is saved inside the system and just sitting around for the next renter to find.

If you absolutely must make hands-free phone calls, the columnist advises to clear the smartphone data from the rental car before returning it or bring your own Bluetooth audio kit (example).

Of course, the best advice is not to pair your phone at all and concentrate on your driving.

It Still Matters....A Lot

Historian David Armitage reflects on the two "elements that sometimes get conflated" in the Declaration of Independence [bold added]:

The first of these is the assertion of popular sovereignty to create a new state: in the Declaration's words, the right of "one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them."

The second and more famous element of the Declaration is its ringing endorsement of the sanctity of the individual: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights."

(Using the pedestrian terminology of organizations, the Declaration was the mission statement while the Constitution was the first attempt at the policies and procedures manual.)

Throughout history to the present day, the most heated debates concerned the meaning of the words in the founding documents. One development has been clear: the two "conflated" elements of the Declaration are often in conflict with State power that has grown all over the world:

In the Declaration of Independence, the same principles that empowered one people to separate from the British Empire also gave them, as individuals, certain expectations about how they would be treated by their own governments in the future.

Today's authoritarians are eager to flex their sovereign muscles, especially in suppressing dissent at home and criticism from abroad, but they don't like the second half of the equation—the notion that their authority derives, ultimately, from the "unalienable rights" of their citizens.

Fireworks 2014

The Beach Park bridge is our normal vantage point for watching the Foster City fireworks, but this year it became too crowded for our liking. Out-of-town newbies did not observe the unwritten rule that they should always leave a path for pedestrians. They planted themselves in the center of the walkway, and traffic came to a dead stop. We squeezed past them and exited the bridge.

Joining groups standing on the grass, we had an unobstructed line of sight. Flash! One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three---the boom reached our ears; the explosions were half a mile away.

15 minutes later the Independence Day celebration ended in a final paroxysm of light and sound.

Realization dawned: our new viewing position allowed us to return without crossing any streets. Next year we'll watch from the same place and get home more quickly. To the rude newbies who unintentionally made us leave the bridge, thank you.

The Minutes Before the Fireworks

Toward Ryan Park and the Metro Center, from the Beach Park Bridge

Happy July 4th!

Party On

Fireworks for sale at Don Quijote market.

In Hawaii New Year's Eve has always been the principal fireworks holiday.

Everyone participated. As a 4-year old I waved my first sparklers, creating a figure-8 with the blue trail. The older boys threw cracker balls, trying to make each other jump. The men and women lit a few cherry packs ritualistically, then went back inside to enjoy food, drink, and conversation.

At midnight the patriarch of the family, then my grandfather and now my father, lit a string of 10,000 firecrackers hoisted on a ladder. Many of the other families in the neighborhood were doing the same, and the din was earsplitting. After watching for a few minutes, I would go inside to get away the noise and smoke.

July 4th in Hawaii has become a second fireworks holiday, mainly due to commercialization. Although the meaning of Independence Day is quite different in the Islands (where some believe that "independence" was forcibly taken away by the United States at the end of the 19th century), for most people the desire to have a good time overwhelms historical misgivings.

Party on. © 2013 Stephen Yuen

Happy 4th!

Photo from fostercity.patch.com

We spent most of the day getting ready for another trip. In the evening some of us fought the traffic in and out of Foster City, as we were inundated by hordes coming to watch the fireworks. Others viewed the spinners, rockets, Roman candles, and strobes from a mile away on the Beach Park bridge.

Life in America in 2012 is good.

Happy 4th!