Fourth of July Celebrations

I risk offending a few folks here but am going to go ahead with this anyhow, because it's on my mind and in my heart.

It's just past eleven in the evening of this July 1, 2015. America celebrates her Independence Day in just a couple of days and a couple of hours.

There will be gatherings, and picnics, and fireworks, and Flag waving going on every which way from Tuesday, all of which I happen to love a lot.

I posted photos of some of our Founding Fathers on my Facebook page, and a few of our National icons - the eagle and the Flag, the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty ... people and things that every American ought to be familiar with.

But why is it that I seem to be the only one who is posting this type of thing? 

With all the hoop-la about flags these days, our Flag is everywhere - and that's a good thing, don't get me wrong here - but that Flag didn't just happen, folks. It didn't appear out of nowhere, and the Nation it represents didn't just fall down onto the North American continent out of thin air.

While everyone is planning their picnics and fireworks, how many of us are thinking about WHY we're having picnics and fireworks? I mean really thinking about it, not just kind of knowing ... 

Back in the day those guys did what they had to do when they had to do it in order for us to - WHAT? Have a picnic? Shoot off fireworks? Yes. Indeed yes. That we are able to do so in safety and freedom would no doubt please them immensely. Other things, probably not so much.

We're reaping the benefits of what they did over 200 years ago.

Do we not get it that their choices clear back then are impacting us TODAY?

Do we not get it that our own choices are going to be impacting the generations who will be living here more than 200 years down the road?

So, as we're eating our steaks or hot dogs, munching on potato salad, and seeing who can spit watermelon seeds the furthest, maybe the thought ought to cross our minds that doing these things, having the safety and freedom to do them, might be something we want for our future generations to be able to enjoy doing too.

We can say, 'Boy, I'm sure glad those guys did what they did way back more than two hundred years ago!'

Two hundred years from now, will Americans be saying those words about us?