July 4th abroad

I don't have any suitable pictures of flags and fireworks--just a glimpse of peace.  Yesterday was July 4.  Frank asked me if I miss being in America for this holiday and I have to says I do not.  I do not miss the America of 2008.  I miss the America that was "Declared" on that day in 1776 and the one which was "Constituted" some years later.  We've traded  the Tyranny of a distant monarchy for the Tyranny of the Corporate Giants.  We're told and now believe (particularly since 9/11) that the highest act of Patriotism is to go out and buy.   I hope that in showing up at a local hotel  in Ireland to meet up with a handful of other American's to collect our forms as absentee voters, we are demonstrating a degree of genuine Patriotism.  This is my prayer for my country today--that we all vote with our consciences--not our fear of scarcity in a land of plenty.   It's up to us to steward the resources we have and stop colonizing  other countries who have "what we're too wasteful to conserve".   God Bless America.