Have a (Safe) Bang-Up Day

Thought for the day: Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.   Moshe Dayan

OK, for today, America's birthday, let's take a look at some appropriate quotations while we're waiting for the cake to come out of the oven:

 "As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protection of the civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality."  George Washington


"Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom." Albert Einstein


"Life without liberty is like a body without spirit."  Kahlil Gibran


 "I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise that fact by speaking." Woodrow Wilson

"We must not be free because we claim freedom, but because we practice it."  William Faulkner


"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."  Thomas Jefferson


"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies dies from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism."  Erma Bombeck

And a quick poem by Carl Sandburg, entitled

                                                 Fourth of July Night

                 The little boat at anchor in black water sat murmuring to the tall black sky.
                 A white sky bomb fizzed on a black line.
                 A rocket hissed its red signature into the west.
                 Now a shower of Chinese fire alphabets,
                A cry of flower pots broken in flames,
                 A long curve to a purple spray, three violet balloons ---
                Drips of seaweed tangled in gold, shimmering symbols of mixed numbers,
                Tremulous arrangements of cream gold folds of a bride's wedding gown ---
                A few sky bombs spoke their pieces, then velvet dark.  
                The little boat at anchor in black water sat murmuring to the tall black sky.
                                 
                               

                                                       

I hope you all have a wonderful ... and safe ... Independence Day. Oh yeah ... know what one flag said to another? Nothing ... it just waved.

Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.