Our Country is Now 233 Years Old

Independence Day in this country always has a somewhat warlike feel to it--fireworks (representing explosives), vibrant flag colors (representing bloodshed and sacrifice, as well as thunderous victory over our lessers), open flame cookouts (representing the times we've had to roast our enemies alive), and fambly volleyball games (representing the time Uncle Dave decided to punt the volleyball directly at Grandma just to see if he could get her to drop a tray of fruit salad). This is markedly different from the national holiday of say Canada, where they get together and politely ask the British if they can have a celebration and are rewarded with a "yes" about seventy years later. After all, Canada never had a revolution or civil war, never forcefully wrested themselves from the yoke of others, and never developed the elaborate network of violent street gangs that we have. Hey Canada? Way to be weak sauce!

Our culture on the other hand has always been about that truly American pluck and derring-do, as the original settlers didn't come here and politely ask the Indians if they could use some of the land (or actually, they did do this, singed treaties, then realized that the treaties weren't written in Indian so they could do as they pleased). America has always been about taking what's ours--in fact, many maps of North America list Canada with the subheading "(until the U.S. decides it wants this land)". The fortunate thing is that we've often used this hungry attitude for good things, like fighting Nazis and Communists and the Spanish. And this is what we celebrate every 4th of July.