Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Happy 4th of July

Today is a day when we celebrate something in America, but nobody seems exactly certain what. Perhaps is the festival of blowing stuff up? National Parade Day? Maybe the homage to eating too much BBQ? Perhaps it's where we celebrate getting all puffed up with an aggressive and macho form of national pride? All of those celebrations do seem to occur on this day, but, I hope it goes without saying, that they are missing the point.

Here's to all the good things about our country. All the friendly, kind, wonderful people, and the heroic and decent things that happen on a small scale every single day. Here's to our freedoms and our ideals. For those who can only see the bad in it (there is certainly plenty of that), I can only quote Max Ehrman:

"With all it's sham and drudgery, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."

No comments: