Happy Fourth of July

Whites Bridge, MI 5/14/2022 dwm

 It's America's 249th birthday - which means the big party and better presents will happen next year.

 My first thought about the United States turning 250 is that when our family moved into a new home before I started third grade, my new bedroom became red, white, and blue for the country's bicentennial.

 In 1976, it seemed people of both parties could embrace their country and what it stood for without a lot of political overtones. 

 Fifty years later, not only are there more politics, we've created enough gaps and divides that it is virtually impossible to find things on which we agree.

 There are many times when Americans came together in the face of danger or when the odds were stacked against us and pulled together as one.

 I think the last time that happened was on 9/11. 

 We shouldn't need an enemy to come together. Instead we need to rise above the things that divide us and search for those things that bring us closer.

My country, tis of thee,

Sweet Land of Liberty

Of thee I sing;

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrim's pride,

From every mountain side

Let Freedom ring.   -My Country tis of Thee - Samuel Francis Smith, 1831

 

The men and women of our military swear allegiance to the United States Constitution and the principles and values for which it stands.

O thus be it ever when freeman stall stand

Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!

Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto - "In God is our trust,"

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

 

-Star Spangled Banner, verse 4, Francis Scott Key 

 

Indianapolis. 7/5/2009 dwm photo