Let freedom ring

by chuckofish

We had a lot of rain early on July 4th, but the sun came out and “America’s Birthday Parade” went forward although there were not a whole lot of people in downtown St. Louis. I watched from home.

Daughter #1 and Mr. Smith and the boy and his family came over in the afternoon and we celebrated in our traditional way.

Why mess with a good thing? Daughter #2 and her family celebrated with their own backyard BBQ along with some new friends. The prairie girls were dressed appropriately!

The local town fireworks display was postponed until tonight because of dire weather predictions (note the blue, nearly cloudless sky in above photos), so we’ll probably go over to our usual spot in the high school parking lot to watch. But I have to say there were a lot of local, unofficial firework displays in our own neighborhood last night. More than I remember in previous years.

Well, I’ll wrap up with some wise words from Calvin Coolidge:

About the Declaration [of Independence] there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

–President Calvin Coolidge, from a speech given on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1926