Happy Birthday, America…

Happy Birthday, America…

It is the 4^th of July and time to celebrate this wonderful nation that we have the privilege of living in.  We are so lucky to have the freedoms that we enjoy.  The majority of them were crafted by our Founding Fathers in the very document that we celebrate the signing of today.  Many have been added by the thoughtful and caring people who followed.  The words they put to paper created a nation where so many have grown up living a dream that people in other less fortunate countries cannot even imagine.

I am one of the lucky ones.  To look at my house one might not think of me in that way, but from my eyes, I am lucky.  It is a small house (under 1,000 square feet) alongside a busy road, but I no longer hear the noise from the traffic (I am immune to it).  It is close to 100 years old and does not have the curb appeal of the lovely brick mini-mansions that are the current, preferred house of the up and coming crop of the upwardly mobile generation.  But it is all mine, bought and paid for so as long as I can afford the taxes, I am good.  It is cluttered as I am trying to consolidate the contents of a summer home that I recently sold while trying to get it settled into the new life that is mine and mine alone since my husband and best friend died a couple of years ago.  There is a well (so no water bills until the pump dies or if it should go dry after many years of use) and an on site septic system (it would not pass inspection to sell but it works just fine for me).  I am retired and between Social Security and investments I am doing fine.  Living the dream!

I will, in all possibility, outlive many of the changes that I am seeing when I have the nerve to look at the news.  I am seeing a very greedy and corrupt government… Local, Commonwealth and Federal… who no longer care about the majority of their constituents but rather cater to the wants of the few, wealthy groups who can line their pockets with money and perks that set them well above the people they are supposed to be serving.  I see our freedoms being reduced and changed by the desires of the few rather than what the majority want.  I see the government sticking their noses into places that their noses should never be to the point that when they finally realize that what has been created cannot be sustained, the entire nation will collapse.  At least I hope I will no longer be here to see it.  But I fear my children may still be around.  But then my parents probably felt the same way… we humans are amazingly adaptable!

But today we celebrate the very creation of this nation.  We should be proud of what was done then and we should honor the men and women who serve in the military to give us the rights we have.  And we should pray that our leaders will wake up and smell the coffee, before it is too late.

Happy Birthday, America!