It happens every Independence Day. I find myself thinking about the Spirit of ’76. 

Not 1776. I’m talking 1976. 
Our nation’s bicentennial. 
The big two-oh-oh. 

We were proud. We were patriotic. We were showing it. 

But it wasn’t a muscle-flexing, chest-bumping patriotism.

The only word for what we were in 1976 is corny. We were corny for our country and we didn’t care who saw us.

Every town had a parade. Ladies crocheted Betsy Ross flags out of polyester yarn. Bald eagles were thick as pigeons on a downtown sidewalk.

Even Southern kids were singing Yankee Doodle and were thrilled to get one of the special bicentennial quarters with the revolutionary drummer backing up the father of our country. 

Do you remember what we did to the fire hydrants?

We painted those suckers in all manner of stars and stripes. Turned them into squatty Uncle Sams and fireplug minute men. 

We lost that corny strain of patriotism somewhere along the way. We became too cool or too cynical for liberty bell t-shirts and coffee mugs with cartoon images of Washington crossing the Delaware.

You might be saying, “That was a simpler time.”

But was it?

A fifteen year involvement in Vietnam had ended the previous year with the fall of Saigon.

We were two years removed from the constitutional crisis of Watergate.

The nightmare of November 22, 1963 was nearer in time to the Bicentennial than September 11, 2001 is to this Independence Day.

No, we weren’t naive in 1976.

Something about that big round number, two hundred, gave us an excuse to throw off our cynicism and weariness to have a great big birthday party. Under the glare of rockets bursting in air, we clapped and marched in place as Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops roused us to our feet with Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever.

Yeah, we were corny. What of it? We needed a party.

If you’re feeling that need for a party today, join me in making this declaration of cornball patriotism: 

We hold this truth to be self evident, that this day is worth celebrating.

Now go find your foam Uncle Sam hat and get ready for the fireworks.

This is beautiful…

This is a beautiful flag. It stands for big, important things. Things worth celebrating, no matter what a misguided former football player says.