Happy 4th of July!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some pictures I took of my neighborhood fireworks this year. First time I've had a tripod to use, and it makes a difference when you're trying to use a slow shutter speed. I actually got some fireworks in the frame instead of just black sky! ;-)

Hope you're having a great 4th!

My favorite two stanzas of "America the Beautiful":

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

 

 This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.
Elmer Davis

 

And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
Lee Greenwood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness.  You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.  ~Erma Bombeck