Happy 4th of July

I love the 4th of July as it is a wonderful reminder of the beauty of this country. I don’t want that statement to be mistaken as my saying this country is perfect—it isn’t and I happen to be in a job where I listen to people vent each day about how these days are so “confusing.” I realize that the world itself is very different today than it was decades ago. It can be scary and it can be unsettling, but that doesn’t detract from much of the privilege many of us can experience on a daily basis.

I’m not simply talking about rich or poor here but small things like the width of our streets that in many places are not littered with pot holes. The fact that we have trash pickup or at least somewhere to throw trash away. There is even a freedom in walking down a street, through a forest, in a park, etc.

We turn on the news each day and see or hear depictions of what is going on in all over the world (Syria, Gaza, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Nicaragua—just to name a few countries in recent news). My husband is from Nicaragua and there isn’t a week that goes buy where we don’t hear about some atrocity the people there are suffering at the hands of their president, Daniel Ortega.

So my thoughts about today? Celebrate this country. Celebrate what it has been (yes it hasn’t all been pretty but if we continue to learn from our mistakes, they will serve us in our evolution), celebrate what it is and most of all, celebrate what it can continue to be as we each learn to protect it. And as always, I want to give a special thanks to all our service members of past and present—thank you for your service to our country and for protecting all we have.

Happy 4th of July!