Just too damn sensitive?

In the resent tweet by the U.K. commemorating the anniversary of a 200 year old event, they wrote what I've quoted below. Some people, I'm assuming Americans, have responded with comments that this tweet was in poor taste. I disagree. If you read the tweet as I think it was meant to be read, you'll note that they included "only sparklers this time".

We celebrate our independence from these same people every 4th of July and we do that with sparklers, among other things that shoot fire and go boom. These are both celebrations. And in the below quote, I read it as meaning "we are now friends, so they only brought sparklers this time".

From what I know, they don't complain when we celebrate our victory over them and our independence, so why should we complain when they want to celebrate a moment in history for them? Isn't it now more of a celebration between friends? What is there to apologize for?


"Commemorating the 200th anniversary of burning the White House. Only sparklers this time!"

Yeah... Destruction of property? Not usually a cause for celebration, as such.

I mean...
"Let's have a party to celebrate that time I killed your dog! Only water pistols this time."

Might not be taken in the friendly spirit it was meant.

Yes, I agree that it didn't seem very friendly but I just don't get worked up about things like this. I just don't give a shit. I'm a practicing don't give a shit abouter these days. I pick my give a shits carefully. LOL

People are always going to behave badly and pretend it was okay. Whatevs.

This does speak to the fact that the British don't have a whole heckuva lot to celebrate these days. Frankly, I thought the tweet very accurately reflected a British sense of humor. And, as I recall, their burning of the White House didn't bring them very much, whereas the small battle of Lexington-Concord and the subsequent ones, brought us very much while taking many British lives. On balance, let them eat cake.

Chocolate cake and camomile tea oops I mean hot coffee on the table.

I'm with the who gives a rats ass. As someone coming out of a three year depressive break I didn't know anyone had anything to celebrate anywhere in the world. But I missed a lot

Personally, I think the White House could stand to be burned a little more often, so what do I know.

KoPilot said:

Personally, I think the White House could stand to be burned a little more often, so what do I know.

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THIS! Honestly, if the Brits want to celebrate, please come burn all of Washington to the ground - PLEASE! Leave the Smithsonian alone, obviously, but they can take the rest of the cursed place and do with it whatever they wish.

Please remember this is from a country where we still consider Guy Fawkes, a man who was part of a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament, as a sort of folk hero.

"The only man who entered Parliament with honest intentions!"

Could it perhaps have been done with a little more consideration to the target audience? Perhaps. But, this is how a lot of us do humour... well, the ones with a bit more intelligence than the average British reality TV show star

Burning the White House and failure to blow up parliament.....

The strange things we humans celebrate.

Out of curiosity does VE or VJ day get celebrated in the States?

Sweetdaisymae said:

Burning the White House and failure to blow up parliament.....

The strange things we humans celebrate.

Out of curiosity does VE or VJ day get celebrated in the States?

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VJ and VE days get a mention in the newspapers. Sometime in the last few decades, we have stopped celebrating either "end" of that war and instead hold a day of recognition for all military veterans, fallen or not. That's done on November 11 and is a national holiday, though it's mostly schools, banks, and state/federal offices that close. The rest of us just keep on working.

They used to honor Pearl Harbor day here, its sad that they dont anymore.

Stag of Oberon said:

so that it can be rebuilt into the high tech, ultra secure, overtly menacing capital of a police state it currently pretends not to be?

thats a pheonix i'd rather not conflagrate in the first place.

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If it's already that, then what does it hurt that it just becomes more obvious?

I'm imagining the headlines now...

"White House To Be Rebuilt As Homage To Castle Greyskull"

""To Hell With It" Says President After Fire; "We'll Just Move To Fort Meade Already""

Quite honestly sounds like much ado about pretty much nothing. The burning of the White House happened during the war of 1812 , Concord and Lexington was during the war of Independence 35 or so years earlier.

The British had a standing army at the time which the U.S. did not. Most of our victories came from the the U.S. Navy victories at sea and on the Great lakes. The later forced the British to eventually withdraw from Detroit and generally abandon their invasion of the U.S from Canada which they had planned.

Basically what we won was the British agreeing to stop stopping our ships on the high seas and impressing American citizens into the British navy.

As an interesting aside even though the British agreed to a peace and the withdrawal of their forces from U.S. territory it took them many more years to finally do so.

If anyone is interested here is a very brief description of one of the more famous sea battles between the U.S.S Constitution and HMS Guerriere.

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/war1812/atsea/con-guer.htm

I grew up reading books both historic and fictional about the naval battles during the war of 1812 so I may have a somewhat slanted view of the happenings of that war. (LOL)

MK CLK