This July 4th, despite the discoraging news at home and from abroad, despite a failing economy and the  triumph of shameless, naked greed, despite three wars and and more on the way, despite our land's seeming irreversible slide into oligarchic oppression, we have one bit of good news worthy of celebration.

New York  has granted the right of mariage to same-sex couples. This, coming on the heels of the military's repudiation of its absurd "don't ask, don't tell" policy,  may indicate that all is not lost, that the USA is, however shakily, still fumbling its awkward way toward equality. And there's still more the be thankful for...

Those lucky same-sex lovebirds can also celebrate the fact that they, like their heterosexual fellow-citizens, can have their most intimate e-mails and phone calls monitored and recorded by law-enforcement agencies, without need of warrant.

And when the they and their loved ones travel by air to celebrate the long-deferred nuptuals, they, their spouses and family members, regardless of sexual orientation, are equally subject to electronic and physical strip searches, gropings, and other humiliations, all in the name of keeping this great nation secure. And if the newly empowered gay man or woman has any remotely questionable political affiliations or activist history, he or she has the common, equal right to have his or her computer,  iPhone, or other electonic device inspected, its private information copied, and even the now-universally enjoyed right to have the device seized and impounded, perhaps indefinitely.

Like other citizens, these proud gay and lesbian Americans can look forward to the possibility, however hypothetical, of indefinite detention at one of the nation's state-of-the-art facilities offering "enhanced interrogation," and prolonged solitary confinement. And, like their straight American brethren, a very special few may even be singled out, by the President Himself, for the rare distinction of being targeted for extra-legal assassination.

The hearts of all my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, particularly those  already serving in the military, are no doubt swelling with long-deserved pride at this moment. Rejoice! The door to full and equal  21st-century Americanhood is open at last!