So here's the short of it, 
Reflections on the 4th of July...

And here's the long.

We celebrated the 4th of July today by going to the Neighborhood Picnic - a tradition that started just after we moved into this neighborhood.  We didn't read the Declaration of Independence.  But that's how it all started.  The Declaration was read throughout the villages of the new nation.  And the people built bonfires, fired their guns and set off firecrackers.   The holiday has grown with our nation and now we think about our independence and lots of us think about the generations of young men and now women who have served in our military to assure that we maintain that freedom.  I always think about my eighth great grandfather, Samuel Howard, who at 15 volunteered and was in the army at Valley Forge and with George Washington at the Yorktown surrender. I imagine he was in some audience somewhere and heard the Declaration of Independence read.  The idea behind it, the desire to be our own nation, inspired him and so many others like him to step up and say, I'll go.  I'll help make this amazing dream a reality.

I've heard it said that the Declaration of Independence is the most copied political document in the history of the world. I can imagine that it must be one of the most inspiring.

Of course, now the holiday is more about BBQ, leisure time, and fireworks.  But somewhere we all remember that it's really about our freedom to do those things - and about that amazing time in history when people had a vision of what could be and the commitment to take on what might have been the most powerful country in the world at the time.

So Happy 4th!