This Friday, fly the Gadsden flag

A piece of mine from six years ago, somehow still appropriate:

"In our town, hundreds of us traditionally lug our picnic hampers, wineglasses, and illegal fireworks to the beach on Independence Day. What we call the Big Stuff, the "official," often disappointing show sanctioned by the city fathers, launches from the pier about 9:00 p.m. An hour earlier, the prohibited pyrotechnics — you might call it the People’s Stuff — begin lighting up the sky spectacularly along the water’s edge for a couple of miles south.

"Not too surprising, the beach is always festooned with U.S. flags fluttering beside the bonfires and barbecues. This year, I expect I’ll see more of them than ever.

"But my little party won’t fly Old Glory this summer. Instead, in response to the political profit Bush, Ashcroft, Daschle, and the rest of our masters now reap from last September, we’ll hoist my polyester Gadsden flag, named for its designer, 'the Sam Adams of South Carolina,' radical-liberal Son of Liberty Christopher Gadsden. What better time than this July 4th – while FBI sentinels comb library records for the reading patterns of 'suspicious' patrons – to let the old rattlesnake banner snap loudly at our beach site?"

Read the entire article here.