On The 4th Of July

It was on the 4th of July, 1991 that I was biking around the city of Spokane, Washington following Interstate 90 East.

Though I have traveled across the American Continent all by myself(human powered) three times in my life so far, 1991 was the first time when I traveled across the US by bicycle.

I started in LA on the 1st of June. It took me almost one month to get to Seattle riding along the Pacific coast. Then I turned my steering wheel to the east.

It didn’t take so long until I noticed how huge that continent was. But to tell the truth, I was so tired of traveling and pedaling that I wanted to quit such a stupid thing as soon as possible. I started to think when and where to stop the trek.

Some cars stopped just in front of me on the highway.

And most of the drivers were so nice they gave me coke, cookies, mineral water and something like that.

They all said, "Happy 4th of July!" as they left.

I didn’t know what it meant first.

But a family I met at campground on that night told me it was Independence Day.

We saw fireworks in the direction of the downtown.

People were having a happy time drinking and eating.

I was invited to a party by a family staying next to my tent site.

We drank Budweiser and had hamburgers. Three kids were roasting marshmallow on a campfire.

We were talking about the 1989 movie “BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY” starring Tom Cruise.


Here’s a plot summary from IMDb:

The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.


BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY - Trailer ( 1989 )


When I returned home in Japan, I saw the movie for the first time.

And I came back to a job as an English teacher again in Osaka.



I don’t want to talk about the war. I just want to talk about peace.

If we love our country, we may have to love our planet.

If we love our earth, we may notice we have something more important.



What can we do for WORLD PEACE?

We have to think about it in global level as well as national or local level.

Of course as a Japanese and as an earthling or a citizen of the world…