A few thoughts on Independence Day

As I write this, Independence Day is right around the corner. It’s my favorite holiday, for a lot of reasons. 

Unlike Christmas and Thanksgiving, which in recent years have morphed into stress-filled nightmares of overindulgence and shopping! shopping! shopping!, the Fourth of July remains true to its origins. 

It’s a laid-back holiday set aside to denote what is best about our country, a time to remember the sacrifices made by our fathers, our grandfathers, our sons and daughters. And despite the fact the freedom we celebrate was predicated on the blood and sinew of countless men and women who gave their lives to defend it, it remains a joyous occasion.

So it’s only right we commemorate the holiday with fireworks. Like America — and Americans — they’re big, vibrant, a little too loud sometimes. But they speak for us. Every incendiary burst flung across the night sky is a declaration of independence, a voice crying out against the tin-pot tyranny of proselytizing despots who don’t understand freedom and never will.

Are there things wrong with this country? Hell, yes! I could go on all day about them.

And that’s the point. I COULD go on all day about everything wrong with the good ol’ U.S. of A. I could criticize Congress and the Senate in print, on the radio, on television. I could burn the flag on the steps of the capitol building (though I wouldn’t). I could stand on a soapbox outside the gates of the White House and use a bullhorn to call the President of the United States an idiot (something else I wouldn’t do, although I reserve the right to, depending on what happens at the polls next November).

This is why I love my country. I don’t just like it, I love it, and I am unashamed of my childlike patriotism.

Even the word “patriotism” undoubtedly sounds naive and simplistic to the political pundits out there. That’s OK; America wasn’t created by political pundits, but by the sort of men and women that will be standing alongside a thousand small town main streets this weekend, placing hands over hearts as the old guys from the VFW go marching past, shoehorned into uniforms that no longer quite fit, yet still looking proud and tough beneath the unfurled sheets of red, white and blue.

These are the people that made this country great. From England, Ireland, France, Asia, Italy, Iraq; all came with a common desire to share in the freedoms we celebrate on July Fourth, to embrace the American Dream.

I count myself blessed to be one of them.

mtaylor@staffordgroup.com

(616) 548-8273