Showing posts with label 4th of July. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 4th of July. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Happy Independence Day! Captain America Art by Chris Samee


4th of July Message from Smokey Bear


 

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Happy Independence Day!




Today I am more thankful for the Liberty we have than anything else. I woke up in a comfortable bed, in an air-conditioned room. I am a citizen of the 23rd most free nation on earth -- I wish we were the most, but being 23rd means that "shot heard round the world" in 1776 really has traveled the globe. Boom.
I turned on this marvel of a machine, this sorcery of our free society, and I saw my friends -- some politicians, some teachers, scientists, actors, and people from all walks of life -- posting radical ideas that in earlier days, would get people hanged.
I debated some of these things, liked others, ignored others. Either way, we were all free to read and write our radicalism, our crazy, most oddball ideas, and discuss them openly. Nobody feared "the knock on the door."
I then proceeded to publish things on this marvel, bawdy things, that would at least get me the stocks in days gone by, while I prepared a meal that only a man like King George would have eaten, back in the day.
I was able to do this because I am part of the largest, greatest, most libertarian enterprise in history -- the trade network that operates around the world. We are all able to do this, together, because of the liberty we share. Hunger is vanishing, lifespans and literacy increasing, and the world is getting better and better in so many ways, as liberty and democracy slowly, agonizingly expand. This is beautiful, and I think it's something to be thankful for, and reflect upon.
We have so much further to go, so many battles to fight, so many people to win over. So much wickedness, and so much stupidity, have also been part of it all, and that fight's all part of our never-ending battle.
Today, though...I am just going to enjoy our freedom -- and especially the blessings of liberty -- and thank you all for being part of this great experiment with me.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Erma Bombeck (1927 -1996)


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