July Fourth, 2011

We are so blessed to live in America, every one of us!  I think most of us take so much for granted and only think about our freedoms on July Fourth.  But not me.  I still cry when I hear or sing the Star Spangled Banner, can barely get through the Pledge of Allegiance and I  love a parade that has lots of flags (as long as it isn't REAL hot outside). 

I am very thankful for the freedom to have a house in a city where I want to live, the freedom to love my husband and give him a kiss in public, to have wonderful children (and fantastic grandchildren) that we can live with, help out and brag about.  I can go to church every day of my life and I can wear my cross around my neck.  I do not fear my government for what it may or may not do.  And I can go to one of many grocery stores and make choices of thousands of foods.  I know I am blessed abundantly with clean water, air, beautiful skies, and so many wonderful friends

Here are some quotes I feel express what freedom should mean to all of us.

There is nothing that faith, love of freedom, intelligence and energy of her citizens cannot cure.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live. ~ Martin L King Jr.

A thoughtful mind, when it sees a Nation's flag, sees not the flag only, but the Nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the Government, the principles, the truths, the history which belongs to the Nation which belongs to the Nation that sets it forth. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln


 How many of us have recently, or ever, read the Declaration of Independence.  Every Senator and Representative to our United States Congress is required to read this overpowering document EVERY year.  To keep it in the fore front of our thoughts is tantamount to maintaing our freedoms.  Below is part of the first section of the document which I hope you will take the time to read.

The Declaration was approved and adopted July 4, 1776, drafted by Thomas Jefferson.  The 13 colonies had been at war with Great Britain just over a year when the document was presented to the Continental Congress.  There are 56 delegates that signed the document.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

GOD BLESS AMERICA by Irving Berlin

"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer. "

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home