Friday and the counter at Starbucks is busy.  But it is worth the wait in line to say hello to the welcoming barista behind the register who takes your order with a smile.  The smile is priceless and the coffee is always hot, a perfect balance of astringent bean flavor, and just a  touch of sweetener and cream.

Let the 4th of July weekend holiday begin!

I sometimes reflect upon patriotism, love of country as I have experienced it.  Have I ever felt patriotism?  I came of age in the Vietnam War era.  If you are younger perhaps you cannot remember that time?  That was a time when war was decreed upon a people in the throes of liberating themselves from French colonial servitude.  Young Americans were drafted to go and kill Vietnamese…  In retrospect it was surreal.  I narrowly avoided capture by the draft to join many of my generation in the jungle of a strange land, with a government issue M16 rifle in my hand.  That was a “close miss,” — like the snap of a 7.62 x 39 mm AK47 round hissing past my ear.

My faded draft card remains in my wallet.  I cannot get rid of the artifact of that time in my life. 

Therefore it is reasonable that I am ambivalent about patriotism.

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My weekend begins late this afternoon with a drive to Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove Wisconsin.  I am excited about the privilege of witnessing the “Night of Fire” show, the exhibition of Jet dragsters at the drag strip.  In my sophomore year of high school I discovered the pageantry and the palpable hazard of drag racing.   Drag racing is the adrenaline rush of competition of drivers and vehicles designed, built by hand, — for maximum acceleration down a strip of asphalt 1,320 feet long.

Of all the many types of drag race vehicles, no doubt the jets are the most unlikely, the most paradoxical, delightfully weird competition machines.  An engine by design and purpose meant for a helicopter is mounted horizontally on a chassis, four wheels added, and  driver to create forward momentum by its tail of fire, the pure thrust of the turbine rotors spinning with burning jet fuel.  The sensation of power, the palpable heat, and the relatively slow movement from the starting line belies the high speed achieved when crossing the finish line, at the end of the quarter mile.

A jet dragster is evocative of the American experiment in representative democracy and extension of empire, Pax Americana.  Representative democracy: an unlikely combination of materials and engineering, despite the pageantry and reassurance by politicians, —  on the knife edge of catastrophic failure.

A jet powered dragster approaches the finish line at 300 mph, the driver activates the drag chutes.  Any malfunction of the drag chute release mechanism has an inevitable outcome, — from which the odds are long that the driver will escape without serious injury or death.