I’m glad that they wait until dark to shoot off the fireworks. For me it has nothing to do with the light, or that you really can’t see fireworks during the day. For me it is all about the fact that I cry during fireworks. I really do. When they set off fireworks and play the song “I’m Proud to be an American” (and they ALWAYS do) , I cry.
I glad no one can see me cry because then I would have to explain why I was crying, and I couldn’t do in in under 1000 words (possible even more), and no one wants to hear that much talking during the fireworks. They want to lay down on a blanket and look up at the sky and be transported to their own world of reminiscences of our great country. I don’t think I could put it into a simple sentence what I feel on the Fourth of July. I simply couldn’t explain my love for our country. I couldn’t do it during the fireworks. I couldn’t explain to them that I read “Red Scarf Girl” , and I read Anne Frank’s diary, and I read “The Hiding Place” and I read “The Bridge at Andua”. I learned that a bad form of government makes living a peaceful, happy life a lot harder, if not impossible. I learned that my form of government, all though it is not perfect, it has the potential to be more perfect than anything we have yet seen.
I also learned from further reading, that our founding fathers were inspired men, called to a great work, and chosen for a great mission of putting a form a government on the earth that is unlike any other because it took from other forms of government the best of what it had to offer, and put those into a whole new form of government. These men were great men who thought about government (and everything else in between). These were men who who were honorable, noble and magnanimous. These were men who believed so much in what they were doing that they were willing to sacrifice everything.
Knowing all this sometimes leaves me feeling very small. Can I offer anything to this great country? Can I make any difference in today’s society? Has it all been done, and now all I need to do is sit back and let the clock tick?
If I am so proud to be an American what am I doing about it?
I am trying to keep the stories of our founding alive for my children. I am trying to teach them about the lives of our founders. I want them to know who they were and what kinds of people they really were. I am trying to be active in what’s happening in my town and in my community. I am trying to help by raising good people who want to do the right thing because it is right, and who actually know what the right thing is.
What are you doing?
I cry, too! I am glad I am not the only one.