Happy Birthday America....

Happy Birthday America! I hope all my Loyal Legionnaires have a safe and happy fourth of July. To me it brings back memories of summer, baseball games in the local ballpark, fireworks displays after the ballgames, hotdogs and potato salad.

I remember coming back to Nebraska as a kid, we lived in Texas then, and spending the fourth watching a legion (not Lightning Legion) ballgame and then the fireworks display...which was then one of the best in the area. What great memories those are.

I won't go into any kind of politics, because if you know me you know my politics...but bottom line I am a veteran, a patriot, and a old fashioned American that still believes in the American dream.

But this isn't the time for politics, it is a time for celebration of our freedoms, and remembering the people that fought for it and paid the ultimate sacrifice. At least it is to me. I paid a price for freedom, and saw alot of guys that paid the high price. I see their faces everyday and night, I hear their voices as the fireworks go off as I watch from my backyard...I hear the concussion of the mortar and rocket fire inside the beautiful flowering fireworks...I hear the ache of young boys paying a high price for freedom, individual freedom, to live a life they dreamed of...to save the things they believed in...

...and then it is over and we go back to our daily lives enjoying freedom but not thinking of the price that freedom costs. It is a high price, for a high ideal...enjoy it because there are people that will fight for it no matter what the price. I am one of those people. I did it, and I would do it again.

Not for the politics, but for the American dream...it may not be the same dream as others, but the dream I have for America. The spirit of America.