I have ancestors that fought in nearly every war this country participated in from the French and Indian War to the Vietnam War. My husband served his country in the U.S. Air Force and most of the men in his family served in one branch of the service or another.
I have two known ancestors who served directly under General George Washington, some who fought in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and those who fought for both the Confederates and Union forces during the War Between the States.
One ggg-grandfather, who fought for the Confederacy, was only 16 when he was shot in both thighs at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas in December 1862 and served out the remainder of the war in a Union prison in Shreveport, Louisiana.
It was brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, father against son during the Civil War – nowhere more evident than here in Missouri.
As I sit at my laptop today to type this blog the sounds of firecrackers surrounds the house. Missouri is, if nothing else, as patriotic as it gets.
We live in a city where fireworks have always been permitted between the hours of 8 a.m. and midnight on the 4th – though they are usually discharged from the 1st through the 4th with zero law enforcement throughout the city.
It's as if the police disappear for those four days and only come out of hiding if they absolutely have to.
My cats are freaking out as I write, meowing in protest at the sounds. My Romeo, a bit of a skittish feline, has already broken out in hives as he is wont to due when in distress. So we will have to close up the house and turn on the air conditioner even though it is gorgeous weather just to mute the noise a little.
I am patriotic – yes – but I have no use for the fireworks being discharged all throughout the city. It's noisy and creates a large amount of debris, often not cleaned up by those setting those pesky fireworks off.
Most years we spend days picking up rockets that are legal to sell, but illegal to discharge, from our yard, bushes and from our roofs on both houses. Last year we were in abject fear of a fire as we were in a very serious drought with most Missouri cities banning fireworks from being discharged except in city-run fireworks displays – but not our fair, historic city, which prides itself on looking the other way for a number of reasons.
I sound like an old grump – but I guess we're more focused on preventing our houses from catching on fire and the neighbors that are sure to aim those rockets at someone else's house – often one of ours – so they don't have the debris field at their house.
Several of the neighbors sit out in the driveways from 8 a.m. to midnight drinking so that by mid-afternoon, it's the kids under age 8 that are lighting off the dangerous fireworks.
Nevertheless, this is America – home of the free and the brave. Having lived in New Hampshire for 17 years, we embraced the state's motto: "Live Free or Die."
I still applaud those who stand up and fight for our freedoms, even if I don't like the private discharge of fireworks for 16 hours a day during Independence Day week. Today I am remembering the three who lost their lives in the Boston Marathon bombing back in April and those who survived, but are permanently scarred from their injuries. It was the bombers original intent to make Independence Day the focused day of their reign of terror.
One thing we Americans have proven is that we're a sturdy lot. We're a melting pot of people from all over the world, yet we will join together in unity to fight for our freedoms, defend those less fortunate so they can have THEIR freedoms and spend that one, precious day out of the year – July 4th – celebrating 237 years of American freedom.
God Bless America!
No comments:
Post a Comment