It is hard to believe that it is already the Independence Day weekend. The days are already getting shorter. The Lovey Sharon and I have spent considerable time the last month working in the yard, planting flowers and trimming everything. But after working in the yard for a couple of hours this morning, I am going to take it easy the rest of the afternoon and then we will join dear friends Norm and Terry for dinner at a new nearby restaurant. Sitting here in the Bud Cave, I have been thinking about our Country. How wonderful it is to be an American. Even the name the “United States of America” does something to me when I see it printed or hear it announced. I have never tired of seeing the stars and stripes flying against a blue sky. I don’t know whether our flag is actually the best looking flag of all the countries or if it just seems so to me.
When I think of the USA I think of many things. I think of the political discussions with my friends. How wonderful it is to debate and argue openly and in public over political and economic issues and to be able to criticize our elected leaders. As Americans it is not only our right but it is our responsibility to voice our opinion to stand up for our ideals and beliefs. How wonderful it is to be able to write on a blog that most of my friends (right leaning Republicans) are wrong about almost everything. How wonderful it is to have friends who tell me I am totally wrong on pretty much everything but yet they are still my friends.
We have so many gigantic issues facing us now, healthcare, Medicare, Social Security, runaway debt, unemployed, crashed real estate markets and spending billions of dollars weekly in Mideast wars that can, in my opinion not change the ingrained beliefs of people that have been solidified for two thousand years. I think about these issues constantly. I watch the news, I read the news and I listened to the news. Sometimes it is just too much. From now until Tuesday morning, July 5th I am not thinking about that stuff. I am going to think about the physical beautiful of our country, I am going to thank God for our freedom, I am going to give thanks to those men and women who have served in the military since 1777; those who gave their time and their lives because they believed it to be their duty. I am going to think about how lucky we are to be able to vote someone out of office rather than overthrow a ruler.
I am going to think of the following:
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
America, I love you and I am so thankful to be a citizen
Recently Read Books
- A Delicate Truth- John Le Carre (fiction)
- Perfect - Rachel Joyce (Fiction)
- The Expats - Chris Pavone (Fiction)
- An Event in Autumn - Henning Mankel (Fiction)
- Winter in Madrid - C.J.Sansom (Fiction)
- The Brothers - John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles - non-fiction
- LIfe Among Giants - Bill Roorbach (Novel)
- Empty Mansions - Bill Dedman (non-fiction)
- Woodrow Wilson (non fiction)
- Lawrence in Arabia (Non-Fiction)
- In Sunlight and In Shadow by Mark Helpren (Fiction)
- Lesson in French - Hilary Reyl (fiction)
- Unbroken- Laura Hillenbrand (Non-Fiction)
- Venice, A New History- Thomas Madden - (Non- Fiction)
- Life is a Gift - Tony Bennett Autobiography
- The First Counsell - Brad Meltzer (Fiction)
- Destiny of the Republic - President James Garfield non-fiction by Candice Millard
- The Last Lion (volume III)- William Manchester and Paul Reid (non-fiction, Winston Churchill)
- Yellowstone Autumn -W.D. Wetherell (non-fiction about turning 55 and fishing in Yellowstone)
- Everybody was Young- (non-fiction Paris in the 1920's)
- Scorpion - (non fiction US Supreme Court)
- Supreme Power - Jeff Shesol (non-fiction)
- Zero day by David Baldacci ( I read all of Baldacci's Books)
- Northwest Angle - William Kent Krueger (fiction - I have read 5 or 6 books by this author)
- Camelot's Court-Insider the Kennedy Whitehouse- Robert Dallek
- Childe Hassam -Impressionist (a beautiful book of his paintings)
Saturday, July 2, 2011
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ReplyDeleteHello, my name is Mike and "I work with the fishes"!! (at SeaWorld that is)
You know my sister Barbara and my brother-in-law
Bruce.
Although we have never met I read your blog with regularity and find it amusing, enlightening and just plain interesting. With that said, I applaud you sir for your latest blog entitled "America" and a tip of my hat to you. Have a great week!