Eaglie's Aviary

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Ten Years Later

Eaglie. Born December 5, 2001. Ten years ago.

You argue that he's only nine years old. You also were that horrible person who insisted the year 2000 wasn't the turn of the millennium and you are going to ruin Christmas this year.

Why does December 5th stick around? Why not July 4th?

I've told the story before. It is the day I first typed the name "Eaglie" as my label.

In the years since, I've discovered new reasons to keep the date:

Prohibition ended on December 5, 1933. That's when Americans ratified the 21st Amendment. As Ken Burns put it, Prohibition was the only time the U.S. Constitution was amended—key word: amended—to take away freedom rather than add to it. All other amendments have been meant to give Americans more freedom... or to add term limits. (And I'll add a personal story I told a few years back.)

And then, going through family documents, I learned my grandmother—my oma, as I'd call her if I'd known her—became an American that day. A German naturalized to an American citizen. My dad remembered his dad being so proud of her. And she was just as proud.

To me as an American (and as me), December 5th is as important as July 4th.

Labels:


Comments:

why did you let your blog to have such spam comments and why don't you try to update this often.??
 
Ashley: I admit that I'm ashamed of the state of the blog. The busy real life me left it to the cyber-wolves and they took over.

My life/work took me away from writing it, but that doesn't not make me hate myself for not keeping it up. In a not-too-distant future, I hope to love the blog the way it always deserved.

Thank you for reading.

P.S. I left one spam comment for good measure. I mean, who doesn't want Tory Burch Flats?
 
Post a Comment