Sunday, July 4, 2010

I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy....

A GLORIOUS INDEPENDENCE DAY TO THE USA!
Not the country of my birth but the country to which I owe allegiance and a multitude of thanks as well. To that grand country that made good on its promises, as inscribed on the Statue of Liberty:

By Emma Lazarus
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

With a full heart of gratitude that our Founding Fathers (yes, and Mothers too) followed the path away from servitude and the gnarled, twisted way of thinking that had held us in thrall, to deliver a resounding blow for life, liberty and freedom for all. No, not a perfect place but always reaching, always searching to perfect itself.

Yes, it is only right and proper that those who enjoy the prosperity and freedoms purchased through the bravery of those who put themselves on the line those centuries ago, who lived these words of Patrick Henry's-_-"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"---take a moment to celebrate our "home of the brave and land of the free."

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