Independence Day

The Fourth of July...and some thoughts about it that were brought to mind by my friend Quill Dancer today with some questions she posed about our country and about how "green" we are. It was good, because it certainly jazzed me into writing a Fourth of July page today. Here are my thoughts about the Fourth of July.

I'm so glad our founding fathers put their very lives on the line to write The Declaration of Independence for us. They put their lives on hold to make a government for us. This past spring there was a miniseries on HBO called "John Adams" and it was very enlightening about the sacrifices and problems they experienced, not to mention the pettiness between the prinicpals involved. I expect it to get many awards. Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney were very fine in their acting and portrayals.

Voting is a right and privilege that my grandmother marched to get for me. She was a Suffragette and there was a movie about that, too. It was called "Iron Jawed Angels". It was 1920 before women had the right to vote, and that was after black men had already attained the right.

Wickipedia has this to say about womens' suffrage (the right to vote):
"Early victories were won in the territories of Wyoming (1869)[15] and Utah (1870), although Utah women were disenfranchised by provisions of the federal Edmunds-Tucker Act enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1887. The push to grant Utah women's suffrage was at least partially fueled by the belief that, given the right to vote, Utah women would dispose of polygamy. It was only after Utah women exercised their suffrage rights in favor of polygamy that the U.S. Congress disenfranchised Utah women.[16]"

Thank you, grandmother for helping obtain the right to vote for me and I promise you I will not disenfranchise myself by not voting. I'll try not to blow what it took 72 years for women to get.

Another thing is the displaying the flag. After 9/11 everyone had a flag displayed...mostly improperly. If you don't know exactly how to display the symbol of our land then please go to the Betsy Ross website to learn how and bookmark it for future reference about flag ettiquette.

And if anyone questions the loyalty of our men and women in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Kosovo remember they have no choice in where they are deployed. They are sent wherever they must go. And they do it without complaint. However, when the suicide rate in the armed services deployed in Iraq is higher than it has been in the past 23 years, that is something to make the angels weep. I hope these "conflicts" are over soon and the next President is able to get our men and women out of harm's way. And I hope the idiots who protest a soldier's funeral with ugly sayings...well, I hope they burn in hell.

And that is my freedom of speech for today.

That ain't all folks....we had hot dogs and potato chips for dinner and watched "I Am Legend" while the cupcakes I made for some friends who were in a wreck the other day cooled. Amazingly the fireworks show came on tv just as I finished icing the last cupcake and put them away. The fireworks and the cupcakes were fantastic!!

In the morning I'm going to make some penne with roasted peppers and garlic and some black bean and corn soup for her. She is vegan and it seems no one in their church really understands that. She told me on the phone today that she is eating the vegetables they are bringing with the meat dishes that her husband and son are eating. Bless her heart...she is going to get some vegan vittles tomorrow as soon as I can get to the main dishes done. I'm making the vegetable stock now. It was sort of a head banger thing...like why would I go buy stock? I know how to make great stock and I had all the vegetables for it.