Happy 4th to all

A bittersweet day it is for us. Sweet because of all the freedom's we so richly enjoy, that the Iraqi's are just discovering and bitter because Timothy is once again away from home. How awesome though to be involved in securing freedom for others.......

This morning the children and I reread the Decleration of Independance and discussed it. I wanted to make sure that they understand it so that they have a firm grasp of what our founding fathers intended. So many in this day and age do not. So many of thos of us who call ourselves Americans have no idea what it means to be enslaved -politically or otherwise- and so we take our freedoms for granted. Those of us in the miltary often have a first hand view of what it means to not be free and yet even many in our troops have lost sight of the prize we all hold.

Many times over the last year it has come up in discussions around here and with my family that if the Iraqi people would have just stood up for themselves to begin with we wouldn't be in this mess. However, can a people who have never known anything but tyranny really just do that?? We need to remember that our forefathers came to this country to escape just that, they were not of the stock that had always lived underneath such without complaint. Many of them were part of the penal systym and were not necessarily what we would consider good upstanding citizens today.

How easy it is to look back upon 218 years of Freedom and question others who do not know it. Thank G-d that he gave our forfathers the vision and fortitude He did or we might not be so different today.

We are going to watch the Patiriot in a bit. A bloody, gory film to be certain but I am of the mind that often we need to reminded of the cost for our freedoms. A cost still being paid today.

Do not forget.