Happy Independence Day!

I include two links:

One to the Declaration of Independence, which every American should read occasionally;

and a current link, to a site which indicates pretty clearly my personal feelings about this country's leadership at the moment.

I love my country, I am proud to be an American and we do a lot of things right. Part of what makes this country so great is a citizen's right to free speech - in many countries, I could be imprisoned or even killed for expressing my dissent and disapproval of the current administration's policies.

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Why are firecrackers illegal?

And since they are, why do so many teenagers in my neighborhood 1) have them, and 2) set them off well into the night with complete impunity?

I personally think they should be legal. People blow off their hands or scorch off their eyebrows regardless, so why not just have them be legal? Of course, I feel the same way about street drugs, so perhaps I should not be taken seriously?

I love fireworks. I love the banging and booming; I hate the lousy musical soundtrack that people play on their radios (broadcast on DVE) at the fireworks at the Point.

Does anyone know all the words to This Land is My Land? I find I don’t.

Is it inappropriate to sing the national anthem to my boys at bedtime?

I still get goose bumps, singing the national anthem while lying on the bedroom floor singing over the hum of the AC to two sleepy boys.

America the Beautiful would be a just-fine national anthem too, and it is indeed way easier to sing.

Jude’s looking sporty and festive today in a Gap fireworks T-shirt and red shorts.

Will a red Spiderman T-shirt and navy sweat shorts be enough of a festive red-white-and-blue outfit for Si?

Do they even make sparklers anymore? I loved sparklers as a kid. I routinely scorched the tips of my fingers every July 4th with them.

My friend Lauren and I once drove to West Virginia on the Fourth of July to buy large jugs of cheap red wine to make sangria for a barbecue my boyfriend and I were having. We mixed the sangria in two five-gallon paint buckets. I guess we figured all that fruit and alcohol would offset any paint remnants.

Is it un-American to buy alcohol on the Fourth of July? Is that why you can’t in Pennsylvania? Does Rick Santorum have anything to do with this silliness?

I think blueberry pie is more all-American than apple pie.