The Council Raps, Fireworks on Tap and Bike Maps

Happy holiday weekend Rockville!

It’s time for all things American: baseball, mom and apple pie. 

I love tradition as much as anyone (and America — definitely love America). I also love baseball. I love my mom. Apple pie I like OK, I guess. But doesn’t the phrase “as American as baseball, mom and apple pie” ring a bit old-fashioned? It seems especially so if you ignore the American history of how the phrase was born, mashed together and marketed.

While the phrase might’ve made sense at one time in our nation’s history, today, well, not so much.

Let’s look at it this way: As much as it pains me — a lifelong, big time baseball fan — to admit, football’s super-sized, Super Bowl, super Sundays have long since taken over as the national pastime. (Though why the NBA would follow the NFL’s boneheaded marketing move of locking out players is beyond me. But I digress.) Heck, Japan's won the last two World Baseball Classics.

The “mom” part is a bit trickier. I’ll come back to that.

. I like pie. But pumpkin pie seems to be the All-American choice in my family, what with our Pennsylvania roots. Apple pie on the Fourth of July isn't a tradition in our house. But try going without pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving and see what kind of response you get from my father/uncle/cousins.

Besides, cupcakes seem to be the baked good of choice () these days.

As for the American mother, well, many of us have parents who weren’t born in the United States. I’m the grandson of an Italian immigrant who built ships in the Philadelphia Navy yard during World War II and owned and operated a barbershop well into his 70s. (My grandmother’s parents were also from Italy.) My grandfather supported the war effort. He was a small businessman. I don’t think he — or my grandmother — considered themselves any less American than their neighbors in Springfield, PA. We’re a nation of Italian-American mothers, Latin-American mothers, Asian-American mothers, African-American mothers. All American. And the role of mothers — and women — in our nation’s culture is as strong and as important as ever.

So what does that leave us with? As American as mom. Happy Fourth of July. Happy American Moms Day.

Time to hit the road. There’s holiday traffic to deal with. The freedom of the open road might be one that we in the National Capital region appreciate a bit more than other Americans — if for no reason than the fact that there seems to be so little open road around here.

This holiday weekend, keep in mind the freedoms that our forefathers (and mothers) brought us — and the freedoms to which our grandfathers (and mothers) brought us — like the freedom of editors to write stream-of-consciousness Fourth of July columns.

Here’s the “Born in the U.S.A.” edition (check out one-time Montgomery County resident Nils Lofgren on guitar) of “The Rundown”:

• Rockville City Council members will exercise their freedom of speech on Rockville 11’s “111 Maryland Avenue.” The point-counterpoint talk show, hosted by Susan Kennedy, debuts at 6:30 p.m. today with Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio and Councilman Mark Pierzchala discussing the recent visit to the council by District 17 legislators, bike sharing and a recent presentation to the council and Planning Commission about bus rapid transit.
• Exercise your freedom of assembly: If you’re looking for .
• Want to show off America to a German friend? Rockville’s Sister City Corporation is seeking a host family for an exchange student from Rockville’s sister city of Pinneberg, Germany. The young man, who visited Rockville in July 2010, will arrive in August to attend a Rockville high school during the 2012-2013 school year.
  The student will stay in the home of a Rockville family to maximize his learning experience about America and to further develop his English skills. RSSC will provide administrative, advisory and logistical support such as arranging for the student to apply for a student visa and to attend school. The student will pay for his own incidental expenses, including medical care, lunch and entertainment. The host family will be responsible for appropriate supervision and for expenses related only to room and board.
  Host families in the past have often developed long-lasting relationships with the students who stay in their homes.
  RSCC is also seeking Rockville students who may be interested in attending school in Pinneberg.
  For more information about hosting a student or the exchange program, call Norm Hampton at 301-251-8651. To learn more about RSCC and its programs, visit www.rocknet.org/Community/SisterCities.
• Rockville Patch recently wrote about . Gov. Martin O’Malley recently launched “Cycle Maryland,” a new initiative that encourages biking around the state, including a Cumberland-to-DC tour of the C&O Canal next week.
  The initiative also includes the debut of a new interactive map that cyclists can use to map routes on Maryland bike trails and an online survey of Maryland's biking community that seeks to improve the existing trail map by making it more user-friendly.
  Check out Cycle Maryland on Facebook, follow @CycleMaryland on Twitter and use hashtag #CycleMD to join the conversation.
• Rockville Patch does social media too! Be our “friend” at Rockville Patch on Facebook or follow us @RockvillePatch on Twitter.