July 4th 2011

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. ~Erma Bombeck


This, then, is the state of the union: free and restless, growing and full of hope. So it was in the beginning. So it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to keep the faith. ~Lyndon B. Johnson


There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. ~William J. Clinton

O Say Does Your Star-Spangled Banner Yet Wave?

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer - July 4, 2010

Its lyrics sound old-fashioned, yet "The Star-Spangled Banner" is riven by the emotions of that moment under fire - of resistance, of sacrifice, of the determination of a young country not to be yoked again to a European superpower and, above all, of victory.

It is redolent of all our wars already fought, yet to come or on-going today, in which young, brave, patriotic, committed Americans expose themselves to the ultimate sacrifce to preserve what is special and enduring aobut our nation.

So today as we mark the 234th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, let us recommit also to honoring America's sons and daughters who remain under fire far from home.

Let us contemplate what it means to sacrifce, together, for a cause. And the next time we have the chance to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" let us do more than lip-sync words forged from the heart under hire: "O! Say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O'er the lane of the free and the home of the brave?"

And as much as I believe in treating our troops with dignity and respect now and when they return home - I still pray for the day when no one will send their son or daughter off to fight in another country. THAT will truly be a day to celebrate. Maybe that day will never come here on earth or in our lifetimes. Maybe humans are not capable of truly coexisting, and PEACE is just a dream to IMAGINE, but I still have to believe in COEXIST.

Someday - let us read about war in history books - and not in the morning newpaper.

Fourth of July 2009

Take a moment and think back to your fifth grade social studies class and remember how this country came to be. If it weren't for a few good men stepping up, taking leadership roles and fighting for our independence - we wouldn't be out partying today. God bless America.

On The Fourth

In a tiny pocket of Ohio every Fourth of July

children still decorate bicycles in flag-like streamers

and parade around the neighborhood while parents follow

dutifully, the air heavy enough to make them collapse

into beach chairs by the lake with sufficient talk

and beer to take them through the day, with nothing

to do but watch little sun-screened bodies on diving boards,

on the sand, in paddle boats, hands full of chips.

Hawks in trees watch silently, while a blue

heron may, at any moment, take flight with a giant prehistoric

wingspan over the scene, geese honk, ducks laugh,

snapping turtles hide in the mud, the deer wait until dusk

to stare unmoving in the shadows, the tree frogs and bullfrogs

will start up a lonely chorus in the dark.

A campfire will arise from old ashes, chairs will assemble

to watch fireworks in this, their own little world.

As children disappear to beds, adults will encircle the bonfire.

The women may talk of their book club selection,

and of how their discussion will veer off topic so easily.

The men will talk of the Browns and the Tribe and keep throwing

mighty logs on the fire into the early morning hours of July 5th

because no designated drivers are needed.

The smell of burning wood will permeate

hair and clothes and open-windowed houses,

smoldering into the breaking day, calling them back

to a place where children are children and neighbors are friends

where America hasn't changed as much as we'd thought.