Jack of Harts

We were rather young and stupid back in the day. Independence Day would come and we would be out there setting off fireworks. Not the glorified sparklers that most places allow either. We used the real deal fireworks, the kind filled with explosives to get their charges into the air for major detonations up above the trees. You could see those things for kilometers around. They were extremely illegal just about everywhere in the New England Federation, but being Family Born made one immune to just about any prosecution. The greater sin was in how joyfully we celebrated Independence Day. The Federation considers it a dour holiday about a bunch of old rich white guys who drove the American Colonies into a terrible rebellion that gave rise to the kind of over-testosteroned self-styled “patriotism” famous in Dixie and Texas yahoos. It was much better to celebrate Federation Day, a holiday devoted to the foundation of the unity of States that have done more than any other nation to redeem the name and promise of America. But we saw it as a holiday devoted to the people who successfully drove off the most powerful empire in the world at the time in order to found a new nation… and we wanted to do the same thing. Like I said. Young and stupid. No one should wish to live in such times as holidays are made to commemorate.