Why the 4th?

I was going to write yesterday, really! The problem was what to write. After 14 hours on the road Monday July 3, I awoke to an eleven year old peanut wanting to go to the parade. While getting ready I was preparing my mind by reminding myself of what the 4th of July was all about. The freedoms this country has are immense. There is so much we overlook. We can worship how we choose, work where we want and choose our profession, choose our college, vote, run for a political office, gripe about those who did run for office, say what we want about the state of affairs, walk through town without having a passport and buy whatever(just about) we want without said passport. The list grows and grows. We are the only country that enjoys these priviledges and while thinking about this my desire to celebrate by driving the distance to the parade was rising. I would go anyway because my little ladybug wanted to go.

While there my appreciation of what we were celebrating grew even more as we saw and heard all kinds of varying messages. What really threw me though was the woman passing out papers on why having military and war is wrong, why our present government was in shambles and corrupt etc... She was proposing that we should never go to war, never show force but have the strongest 'peace' policy ever to create peace in the world! I must interject here that among my good friends that I chose to stand with during the parade, one took her elbow and told her, "Yes, I agree, we need to have the strongest peace policy in the world and that would mean the top rated, most powerful firepower!" (can you guess who?)

The irony that she had the right to say this, choosing our country's independence celebration as her mode of 'getting the word out' was enormous. Why was it that she has this 'right'? Because of wars our forefathers fought, blood shed for her right to say there should be no war-ever!

One may not agree with a certain war or conflict but the basic truth is that if we have the ability to KEEP peace we stand strong. In a perfect world we wouldn't have to ever show force but that world isn't here yet.

I'm glad our country has the freedoms it does, we are quickly losing a lot of them and if America doesn't wake up and appreciate what we have we, as a nation, will fall. In the meantime think about what the 4th of July really stands for and how we achieved it, thank a veteran! Sure, watch for the hat and walk up to him and say thank-you!