What is freedom exactly?

Yesterday the good old USA celebrated our independence day. Some shops were closed, many more were open special hours. Most of the country was BBQ-ing somewhere, or, as was the case here in Milwaukee....drinking a lot. (I do believe that Milwaukee is full of drunks who really are just looking for another reason to go out partying...but that is another matter) I found that in looking around that most of the day was spent watching the many colored fireworks lighting up the darkend sky over Lake Michigan, waiting at a good spot for the fireworks*, or drinking while waiting. The parks smelled of grills and greasy burgers burning on them, coupled with the frisby throwing college students and tons of children, and I had to hand it to Milwaukee....for a moment it was paradise.

Of course, who could forget the parades? (Side note....keep a really good eye on your kids in this place. See previous blog) The guys walking on the stilts were my favorite by far, right up there with the original model T Fords. Gawd, I love Old things. It was great to see how many familys spent the day together ( unless you are my man, who voluenteered to work for no extra pay on yet another national holiday...gotta love the economy that deems it necessisary to have people working for no additional incentives on the most important day in the history of our country).

All of these things made me question a few things about myself and my fellow Americans. Have we as a nation forgotten what it means to celebrate the freedoms that our military has spent the last 200+ years fighting to secure? I spent the majority of the weekend of the 4th downtown watching people, and I won't lie....drinking too. But I had to wonder while all of the celebrations were going on if any of us had stopped long enough to remember what it was that we were celebrating.

During the parades did you shed a tear for the men who had fought so hard to keep our country safe, even when we were in the middle of a war that we had no business being in? Did you stand for the men and women in uniforms, and did your heart feel as though it was breaking when the POW flags were carried past? Did anyone remember the guys who signed the paper that gave us the rights to celebrate yesterday, or the guys who are still out on the front line today fighting for a cause that most others don't understand? Were you embarassed to cry when the flag was carried by the Vet in the wheelchair, who still looked damn proud of his country, despite not having the ability to walk any longer? Did you remember?

I did. I wanted to cry and shout that I was proud of my country, and that I was so sorry that I couldn't be out there on the front lines fighting. I wanted to hang my head in shame that I didn't have the guts to stand beside my fellow countryman and die for them as they were for me. I wanted to throw my arms around every man and woman who serves our country just to tell them how much I appreciate what they are doing every day to allow me the rights to continue living in freedom.

So "Thank You" to the men and women who are out there tonight, some sitting in the fire trucks as they race to yet another fire or accident, some getting into altercations whith the drunk party goers down at Summerfest and being screamed at for giving tickets for Disorderly Conduct. "Thank You" to the Doctors who are in the emergency room doing everything they can to save another life...even when said person probably put themselves in that position to begin with. "Thank You" to anyone who has ever been a part of our military. You are the reason we are still sleeping soundly in our beds tonight. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten. Not by me at least, and not by my children.



* Sitting in the one spot in the park that allows you to see the fireworks only through the trees is not the best idea, but you're not going to move when they start cause you've already been in the same spot for almost 12 hours, and It's a Matter of Principal at this point in the game