Off The Cuff

Better Late Than Never: Happy Fourth Of July!!! (insert fireworks here)

Posted by: From Arkansas in Commentary on Jul 04 2008

Welcome back!

I find myself being about a day late and a dollar short as they used to say when I was growing up. Yep, that dates me again but I don’t care. This holiday sort of snuck up on me this time. For many years, we celebrated the 4th with the requisite fireworks at night at the farm. We battled the bugs of all sorts to show the kids (my nieces) that it’s fun to celebrate the 4th of July. They loved it.

But somewhere along the line, the fireworks got too costly. Have you noticed how much those things cost these days? And if you have a limited budget like we do, it ain’t gonna happen. Why? Because every time one of those things went off, I started seeing little dollar signs fluttering in the breeze, that’s why. Yep, Scrooge McFourth, that’s me.

The truth is…I love my country. There are times when I don’t LIKE her very much but I do love her. She has done what the others did not, give us a certain level of freedom that we have now decided to be arrogant about. That’s sad. We need to see her for what she is, a free place to live. We need to see that she is the symbol for freedom across the world. Not anymore, of course. Still, more people want to come here to live than anywhere else in the world. How many people have you noticed struggling to get into Russia? China? North Korea?

Our country is still a land of the free, home of the brave. It won’t be for long if we do nothing though. Isn’t it time to get more patriotic like we did right after 911? We stood tall and strong as a country in those days. Why? Because someone decided we were not worth it and we decided we were. We need that feeling again right now! Happy Fourth of July to everyone!

EDIT NOTE: Found this tribute to the American Flag on another blog, Two Ton Tilly, and thought I would share it with you. Get out the tissues.

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