The coming Fourth of July celebrations will likely be somewhat subdued this week as the holiday falls on a Wednesday. While most will get that day off from work, the thought of heading to the office on Thursday will no doubt make most refrain from having that last round of beer or third hamburger off the grill. But while it is somewhat disappointing that we won’t have the weekend to kick back and enjoy the heat of the summer with a barbecue, perhaps that is not such a great misfortune.
Too often the true spirit of holidays becomes lost in the frivolity of the celebrating. Few of us can readily admit that every Christmas has been one of spiritual self-analysis, or every Thanksgiving a day of truly being appreciative of our nation’s bounty. The Fourth of July is no different, and I must admit that many years previous have witnessed myself celebrating the day in a dizzying run of bulk fireworks, grilled meat and cheap domestic beer.
Sure, it was fun, but I don’t think I truly gave enough thought to what I was celebrating and why. And here in a town like Eugene, that is more important than many realize.
Here, it is often far easier to find support as a critic of our country than as a patriot. Quite often our streets are filled with angry demonstrators pointing to what they see as serious problems in our government, society and environment.
Both on campus and off, people seem more quick to tell you what they believe is wrong with our nation than what is right. To listen to these folks, one would think there wasn’t anything right with our nation at all. And don’t even get them started on what they think about the current administration.
Therefore, Wednesday is an opportune moment for both a reflective and subdued Fourth of July. I won’t have the weekend to go wild, so I know I will make sure to remember how lucky I am to be an American, and I hope most people will join me.
Through the rights granted by the founders of our nation, we can spend every day complaining about the United States of America, so why not spend one day singing its praises?

Lower power rates good, but conservation is still needed
It was with some relief that the Bonneville Power Administration announced last week that it would be forced to raise its rates by only 46 percent. This is just another sign of how bad the energy situation has become here if we applaud a nearly 50 percent increase in power rates.
But if one takes into consideration the even bleaker outlook for our southern neighbor California, and the fact that it could have been a 75 to 250 percent increase, that puts the news in the proper perspective. While it will not be totally clear for a few days what effect the BPA’s move will have on our local rates, it is expected to be below 50 percent, and that is more good news.
The lower rate increase came through a multi-million dollar buy-out deal by the BPA and aluminum industry that has some, especially our congressman Peter DeFazio, claiming it’s just another example of the energy industry’s questionable methods and another reason for more federal control.
But we should all still hope that despite the small rate increase, these large energy consumers will continue to conserve their power and not pass on even larger rate hikes to the smaller customers. Instead they, and all of us, should become even more vigilant in power conservation.
While deals and more deals will continue, our energy woes will likely become far worse before they get better, and so all of us need to make a strong effort to conserve our power. There likely will never be one silver-bullet solution to this energy mess, but as consumers we can all save the little we can. This will not only contribute to alleviating the overall energy crunch, but will also save us some cash as well.

Smoking ban another affront to personal freedom
Well, they finally did it. Despite a promising piece of legislation that would have nullified Eugene’s smoking ban and brought some reason to this smoky debate, a last-minute compromise will leave this city’s smoking ban in place.
We really should have expected this smoking ban some time ago from a city that often leans toward progressive politics that always claim to be working in your best interest by taking away a few small rights.
Earlier this year, the Eugene Police Department was able to convince our city councilors to enact an ordinance that would leave private citizens responsible for paying police officers overtime if the officers broke up their parties. Then, our city manager decided Christmas trees were too offensive of symbols to be seen on public property, so despite dozens of angry phone calls, letters, e-mails and even a protest by the fire department, Eugene gave Christmas trees the boot.
Now our city is kicking smokers to the curb, literally, by deciding their habit is too offensive to be allowed in private businesses. No one in his or her right mind could promote taking up smoking, but one can argue that it is a person’s individual choice to smoke or not, and a city shouldn’t make that choice for its residents.
I for one spent this past Saturday night at a colorful drinking hole on the outskirts of Springfield. While some friends bemoaned the fact that they’d had their “last cigarette at Rennie’s” this weekend, I just took my business elsewhere.