Happy 4th of July! Because the 3rd is my birthday, I’ve always had an odd attachment to this particular holiday. And yet, here it is once again. No fireworks for me this year. For once, I don’t have kids of the age where they need to be taken. I enjoy fireworks, but it’s too much of a chore to get where you need to be to see them best.
I received the picture at right via email this morning, and looked into it a little further. It’s of a field of flowers display created back in ’02 near Vandenburg AFB in Lompoc, CA. Something like 400 thousand flowers were used to create it. It’s very cool. More details and bigger pictures here.
No matter how you feel about the war in Iraq (I will admit, my feelings are more mixed than ever), my feelings aren’t mixed at all about the soliders who are there on our behalf. We are so ridiculously spoiled to live in this country and have the freedom we do. Even America’s worst domestic critics will tell you that there’s no place else on par with the US. I don’t have much patience for those who spend all their time hating our leaders…we created and we sustain the system that allows them to behave the way they do. When we demand better, we’ll get it. But that may never happen. So, we live with it.
But I am glad to be an American. It doesn’t make me better than anyone else in the world. But it’s my home, and I’m glad it is. I hope you take a moment to be grateful, too.
Dan Gray and I wrote a song some years back called “The Torch of Freedom Burns”. I wrote the music and these lyrics are his. If you’d like to here the song, check it out here:
The fireworks burst across the sky
Filling us with love and pride
We remember those who lived and died
Our liberty supplied
They were standing for our freedom
When they carried on the fight
And their love for our America fires our hearts tonite
CHORUS
And the children’s parents know that the torch of freedom burns
Fueled by love of heroes who never did return
On the shores of foreign lands
They carried on their shoulders
The fire that just grows stronger as America grows older
And the torch of freedom burns
For a land is truly free and thrives
And our way of liberty survives
With heroes in those troubled times
Who know freedom is the prize
So we stand for independence
As we carry on the fight
And the love for those who sacrificed fires our hearts tonite
CHORUS
So let freedom ring
Let the children sing
That america is still alive today
For the torch of freedom burns
Let the torch of freedom burn
Yes, the torch of freedom burns