Happy Independence Day!!

[road kill]

What a timely coincidence........celebrating the Independence our great country once had and the reopening of the POTUS board!!


I wish you each a joyous Independence day holiday!

Please take a moment and think about what your country means to you!!
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Independence Day (United States)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Independence Day

Displays of fireworks, such as these over the Washington Monument, take place Observed by United States
Type National
Significance The day the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress
Date (2011) Monday, July 4
Celebrations Fireworks, Family reunions, Concerts, Barbecues, Picnics, Parades, Baseball games
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches and ceremonies, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. Independence Day is the national day of the United States.

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stan b, the redhead & Elvis

[code3retrievers]

Thank you Chris. Now let's talk politics.

[caryalsobrook]

What a timely coincidence........celebrating the Independence our great country once had and the reopening of the POTUS board!!


I wish you each a joyous Independence day holiday!

Please take a moment and think about what your country means to you!!
__________________________________________________ __________

Independence Day (United States)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Independence Day

Displays of fireworks, such as these over the Washington Monument, take place Observed by United States
Type National
Significance The day the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress
Date (2011) Monday, July 4
Celebrations Fireworks, Family reunions, Concerts, Barbecues, Picnics, Parades, Baseball games
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches and ceremonies, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. Independence Day is the national day of the United States.

__________________________________________________ _________

stan b, the redhead & Elvis

To each and all the same

[charly_t]

Right back at you, road kill. I also wish all of you the same.

[BonMallari]

here is what it means to me

God bless America,
Land that I love,
Stand beside her and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above;

From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans white with foam,
God bless America,
My home, sweet home.
God bless America,
My home, sweet home.

[dspeck]

Happy Fourth of July to everybody!

[Uncle Bill]

As we get older, the celebration of this Independance Day takes on far more meaning than when I was 10' tall and bullet proof. Back then it was a great holiday to eat, drink, go to barn dances, and try to get through that first day back at work with an incredible hangover.

Recently I've found some real reasons to celebrate the 4th, that has very little to do with setting off fireworks or partying. Of course I still enjoy watching the celebration with the family, but it's stories like this that now provide the true reflection of the importance of Independance Day. Enjoy.

UB

It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean. Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier. Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now. Everybody's gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts...and his bucket of shrimp.


Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.


Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, 'Thank you. Thank you.'


In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn't leave. He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place.



When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home. If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like 'a funny old duck,' as my dad used to say. Or, 'a guy who's a sandwich shy of a picnic,' as my kids might say. To onlookers, he's just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.


To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant ....maybe even a lot of nonsense. Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters. Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida. That's too bad. They'd do well to know him better.
His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero back in World War I & II. On one of his WW II flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft. Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were.


They needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap; Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft.


Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull!


Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck.. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal - a very slight meal for eight men - of it. Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait......and the cycle continued. With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued (after 24 days at sea...).

Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first lifesaving seagull. And he never stopped saying, 'Thank you.' That's why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.

Reference: (Max Lucado, In The Eye of the Storm, PP..221, 225-226)