Independence Day

Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Americans! 

I really started out to celebrate this day with a good degree of optimism and good will...BUT....
I have to say i'm dismayed by the number of people who use this day as an opportunity to essentially crap on their country...posting derogatory memes that paint the USA as some kind of dysfunctional aberration. This is a shame, because we have some things we can really celebrate and be proud of in America.

We started with a really well thought out, but admittedly imperfect, democracy 239 years ago. Since then we have abolished slavery and championed equal rights for everyone. It has been slow in coming....but it has been progressive and inevitable. As Americans, we realize perhaps not entirely individually, but as a whole, that freedom must be the right of all people, regardless of faith, ethnicity, age, color or gender. We set out to do this in the beginning, and we are accomplishing it.

We have been leaders in science, education, medicine and technology. Our inventions and discoveries have made the world a better place. We were the first to set foot on another world. 

That's not to say that we haven't done things we should not be proud of. The list of our sins is somewhat longer than we should expect from a country that praises itself as a leader in liberty, democracy and morality. It's a good thing to criticize America and point out where we went wrong...informed criticism actually makes us stronger.

But today is not the day to trash America for its shortcomings. It's a day to celebrate our accomplishments. Tomorrow we can roll up our sleeves and work to make things better...to fix what doesn't work and improve what does.

Today, let's celebrate our Independence Day!