July 4!

As out two friends for Brownback make no hesitation in telling us, today is July 4. So I would just like to remember with you readers all of the great events that have happened on this day -

• Alan Johnston has been freed! This is most certainly a Good Thing, as it reinforces the universal principles of free speech and reporting from around the world. It is also good from a human perspective; a badly mistreated man was freed from the clutches of the Dogmush. But one of the most interesting things about it would be who instituted it; why, none other than the formerly nasty Hamas! They wouldn’t really be thought as great fans of Western journalists and influence, associated as it is with their mortal enemies, Israel. But why? Melanie Phillips has responded, fairly predictably, that this is nothing more than an action by the ‘pincer … of jihad through terrorism and jihad through cultural capture’, and that this is just a encroachment of what she deems to be some sort of evil Islamic conspiracy. But I’m not quite sure; there’s more to it. It’s not just an action to please Britain; Hamas also seem to want to do a deal with Israel to get Gilad Shalit found and released from the same group. This leaves us with two interpretations; either Hamas is genuine, and they are going to ‘do an Arafat’, and seek a proper peace with Israel (and from there, one hopes, resolve the Palestine-Israel conflict), or they are playing along, as Phillips believes. To some extent, does it really matter? Looking at it from a teleological perspective, so long as Hamas could be carefully shepherded into making concessions that the UN, international community, &c. want, then it doesn’t matter what their motivations are; the end result could be peace. I know that this is fairly optimistic, and so far, every chance at peace in Israel and Palestine has crashed and burned (often literally), but this time could be the one.
• 1947 – with the Indian Independence Bill, the first governmental move is made towards the liberation of India and Pakistan from British colonial authority.
• 1966 – Lyndon Johnson signs in the Freedom of Information Act in America; thus (as far as I can tell) making the USA the second nation ever to grant its citizens such a powerful means of holding the state to account (Sweden got in there first, in 1966. Sorry Americans! )
• 1987 – our good friend Skeptic was born.

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