Happy 4th of July…Independence Day…wish the
temperature was not 100°F…not so
pleasant to sit outside…hopefully temps will go down with darkness and
fireworks!
I used to put on a fireworks extravaganza for many years.
Went to Ohio or Indiana to buy tons of fireworks and had the
whole family over and a bunch of close friends. When my kids left home, my zest
for having these shows dwindled and my age probably had something to do with
that too.
Now it is legal to buy those fireworks in Michigan but the gusto is gone…I will still
set off fireworks but to a lesser crowd; my mother and the grandkids.
I noticed our newspapers tried to remind people of what the
day stands for. It printed the entire Declaration of Independence on one page
knowing that many Americans are history illiterate; thank our schools for that.
The newspapers also showed fresh immigrants being sworn in
as new citizens of our great land. People are still drawn to the land of
opportunity for just that, opportunity which they cannot find anywhere else.
We are a land of immigrants but I still have to remind
people of that; many feel that if they were born here they are not immigrants,
forgetting that someone from their family was an immigrant at some point in
time; only native American Indians are considered non-immigrant Americans but
even the Indians came from their distant forefathers who crossed the Bering
Strait over a land bridge that existed then and into Alaska and down the coast
all the way to the tip of Argentina.
My small subdivision organized a parade of people on bikes
dressed for the occasion but only a few showed up…maybe the heat kept them
away.
If it was not for the brave men and women who fought in the
American Revolution; we would still be part of the British
Empire .
I get a little upset when today’s soldiers are referred as
fighters and protectors of our freedoms. The soldiers who fought Britain were
freedom fighters and soldiers who fought in WWII did so to defend our freedoms
from Nazis and Japs who would invade us and take those freedoms away.
Vietnam era soldiers like me did not fight to defend our
freedoms; we were told that we were stopping the march of Communism in the
world because the goal of Communists everywhere was to wipe out capitalism and
replace it with a Communist dictatorship which would ban all freedoms… so maybe
we were kinda’ fighting to stop the encroachment of Communism but I don’t think
we ever thought that Communists were going to invade us; I guess we were
fighting for someone else’s freedoms.
Today’s soldiers are soldiers because they want to be
soldiers and were not drafted like the soldiers of the Vietnam era;
they joined of their own free will because they wanted to.
The invasion of Iraq by President Bush had nothing to do
with preserving our freedoms and our way of life; it was Bush’s campaign to
transform Islamic states into democracies…it was a nice cause if it wasn’t for
all the dead and wounded and still no democracy.
Fighting the Taliban who were sort of partners of al-Qaeda
did not have the same patriotic mission ideal but was similar to Vietnam where
we wanted the country to become a democracy and enjoy freedoms that we enjoy.
I have nothing against the United States fighting evil around
the world and helping other people gain the freedoms that we have enjoyed for
all these years but that does not make those American soldiers defenders of our
freedoms but professional soldiers in a professional army doing the bidding of
our government.
The real danger to our freedoms actually comes from within.
Religious nut cases like the Republicans are always looking to curtail our
freedoms including the freedom FROM religion and the freedom to choose how to
live our lives.
Our Founding Fathers were great men with vision and brave
freedom fighters and we should show them the respect and gratitude every 4th
of July for the great country they founded and we should continue to fight to
retain the freedoms they gave us from those who would take them away even if
they are fellow Americans.
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