I'm Proud to be an American........

It has been the 4th of July for the past hour and 15 minutes. Once again, I am up late and on the computer. This particular night, I am on Facebook. I've checked Facebook on and off today, and I have seen many of my friends post their status as Independence Day thoughts. A few moments ago, a friend of mine posted a video of several actors in a LIVE reading of the Declaration of Independence. I am ashamed to say I have never read the entire document. I know the lines that everyone knows, "When in the course of human events," and "We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal..." I clicked on the video and listened to Mel Gibson, Kevin Spacey, Kathy Bates, Michael Douglas and a host of other household names read the words that declared me FREE, that made me an American and thought how very brave these men were. I listened as the charges were read against Great Britain and realized, maybe for the first time, the absolute hell that the colonists were living in. Each one of those men signed that paper knowing that they were committing treason and could die, but they signed it and "mutually pledged to each other [their] lives, [their] fortunes, and [their] sacred honor." Because of that very courageous act in 1776, I AM FREE! I am free to live as I please, worship as I please, come and go as I please. They were the first in a very long line of men and women who risked their lives so that I am still able to enjoy those freedoms. I posted my own video on Facebook. It is a video of Ray Charles performing my all time favorite version of "America the Beautiful." The line I love in that song is "Oh beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife. Who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life." This country has been through a lot since it's birth on July 4, 1776, and it will endure much more. It has come under attack from foes and been criticized from within, and it is not without its problems, but, in my opinion, there is no place I would rather live. "From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam, God bless America, my home sweet home."