Beer and Fireworks and Grilling, oh my!
Happy Fourth of July!
Truth: This is one of my favorite holidays, mainly because it is ABOUT celebrating!
It isn’t a holiday that has been taken over by celebrating (i.e. Cinco de Mayo in America) or a holiday where celebrating can be seen as inappropriate (i.e. candy and eggs on Easter and presents on Christmas aren’t the true reasons for the holiday).
July 4th is a day were Americans can rightly be proud of their country and everything it stands for. I hope everyone fortunate enough to reside in America can take a step back and genuinely appreciate the freedom we have. Let the 4th be a reminder that, even though we struggle and fight day to day to defend our beliefs, we live in a nation where we CAN stand up. And protest. And question. And unite. And follow dreams.
Today let us celebrate the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave!
The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not. (The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784, Harvard University Press, 1975, 142).
