Let Freedom Ring

Happy Birthday America. 234 years young.

While that might sound ancient in terms of "people" years, when you talk about nations, it's actually quite infantile.   When we were traveling in England a few years ago, we stopped in a neighborhood pub where the cornerstone read 1150 a.d.

Now, that's ancient.

But America has grown up pretty quickly, with a rapid fire trajectory to the top in terms of economy and political values and natural resources.   Sometimes I wonder if, like some of the teenagers I see around me, we haven't grown up a bit too fast, taken on more responsibility than we can handle, and even stepped out of line on more than a few occasions.  In fact, some of our recent problems might be  a "time out," a reality check that some behavior modification is in order.

But after all, our founding fathers were quite the rebellious upstarts, weren't they?  Just ask King George who lost those 13 colonies for the British Empire.   And their hearts were certainly in the right place, with their ideals about representative government, religious freedom, and equal opportunity for all. 

We're still working on some of that, but like anything worth having, it takes time and effort to make it all come true.

With any luck, we'll still be striving and strong until we're really ancient.

Happy Independence Day.

Let Freedom Ring.