Freedom

Independence Day or as I like to say, "Freedom Day" (well I've never outright said it, but it sounds so much cooler) is coming up, tomorrow. Anyone excited? Any plans? I've got none, as usual.

I kinda miss the fireworks aspect of it all. The cool colorful ones are really expensive and I've never had to money to buy them, but I will one day when I'm rich and famous, or at least the former, Insha'Allah (God Willing). And I remember as a little kid growing up in NYC, we'd either park our car on the bridge (between Manhattan and Queens, I think) and watch the fireworks over the river, or celebrate at home. But that changed a while ago. That kinda stuff's illegal now and the residential streets of NYC are so quiet that you'd kinda think the 4th of July was the 3rd of July.

I wonder why they were banned. Maybe people started losing limbs? Maybe houses started burning down? I really should look into that.

Independence day doesn't really mean anything to me. Yeah, we got our "freedom" but (depending on your place of residence) people of different religions/ethnicities in this country are still treated as second class citizens. I was born and raised in this country but I don't even consider myself American. I consider myself Asian American and I think my whole generation will consider themselves that. People look at me like I'm an alien, because I wear a "turban" on my head. What will it take for me to be American? Whatever happened to freedom of religion??? Which is the exact reason people fled from England to THIS land. *sigh*

This is what I feel like being "AMERICAN" is defined as:

• must be light skinned
• must speak only English, unless you're risque and wanna learn French or something
• must be Christian or Jewish
• ancestors must be a mixture of all the European countries

I know people will definitely disagree with me on that but sometimes, I have no American pride (but then again, I'm not much of a nationalist). Yeah, I like living here, but I don't feel like this place is home. Isn't home somewhere you feel comfortable? Somewhere you're accepted because of who you are? Maybe that's Canada.

Anyway, enough of my rambling...and I dunno if I'm supposed to post something now, because we've got some blog rules or whatever, but rules are made to be broken! (Corny? Yes) And I don't care because it's almost independence day and that means I will take advantage of my freedom. ;)