4th of July Deep Discussion Bash
My hubby and I are throwing a different sort of 4th of July party this year. Every 4th of July, I end up feeling all depressed, because I see all these people getting all jingoistic and swaggering around about what an awesome example of democracy the US is without doing anything to further democracy or to fight against creeping authoritarianism and the scary things happening in our country. So, I thought this year, I could assemble a group of intelligent, thoughtful people who would like to come to my place and discuss issues like patriotism, democracy, social justice, and peace. My little part for reinvigorating genuine political and social discourse as an integral part of our culture and political system. Also, we'll eat BBQ and drink beer and other traditional 4th of July beverages.

A couple of my local friends have insisted that we pick up the party as it gets on toward evening and caravan down to Lake Tahoe where (I've heard) they have awesome fireworks set to music. Or perhaps we won't all caravan down there, but the party will be early enough in the afternoon to allow for that.

Another exciting element of this party is (optional) costumes! I think I'll be dressing up as a wiretap. I'll certainly be dressing up as something, hoping others will feel emboldened to dress up as well. My husband will almost certainly not be dressing up, so the more reserved guests will feel emboldened to come without a costume, too.

In a fit of schoolmarmish enthusiasm, I've also been thinking about providing some suggested reading to sort of provide a common theme for our thinking and discussion at the party. I was considering maybe one of the Federalist papers (what was the one that provided such an eloquent argument against party politics?), the text of the Patriot act, and maybe a book about global poverty or the global water crisis. But these are just ideas off of the top of my head. Any other ideas?

I decided to just jump in and start e-mailing my friends as part of my continued quest toward self-expression. I've been wanting to do something like this for several years, but have always waited until I could do it 'right,' with an organized guest list and the reading material all carefully selected. It feels powerful just to declare the damn thing as happening and to let it come into shape gradually.

If you somehow found this blog and aren't one of the people whom I e-mailed about this party and you're like, 'Wow! I'm so the kind of person who would be into a party like this! I should go, and be DancingSinging's new awesome friend! And I happen to live in or near Reno!' then post your e-mail address in the comments and I'll e-mail you. You can give me your real-life name and I'll do exhaustive research to make sure you're not a creepy stalker or serial killer, and then you can come and we'll be bffs. It'll be sweet.