JOURNAL BLOGS
Sometimes, there ain’t enough column space...
4
Jul 2008
Happy Birthday, America
Posted by Scott Spielman
at 12:10 PM | Comments
Click image to enlarge
Veterans always receive a warm welcom at the Fourth of July parade.There’s a part of me that always gets choked up at Fourth of July parades.
I don’t know if it’s all the flag-waving, the preponderance of red, white and blue, the patriotic music or the way members of the armed services always get a standing ovation.
This morning, at the parade in downtown Northville, I watched as people got to their feet as the veterans marched by. Police officers saluted, people cheered and fighter jets roared overhead.
Well, it was enough to bring a tear to the eye of a true patriot like myself.
I got to thinking. There are places in the world where I wouldn’t be able to do this job. There are others where I’d have to pull on a flack jacket and body armor to try to ply this trade. There are countries where people defy threats to their life and limbs just to cast a ballot, where they wait in lines for hours—here, the only place you’d find lines like that, sadly, are at amusement parks—for that privilege.
This isn’t a perfect world, or even a perfect country. We’ve all got issues to deal with, difficulties to overcome. But you gotta admit when it’s all said and done, this is a pretty special place.
Happy birthday, America.
Comments
« Back to Bloggin' on the Edge
Feeds
