Happy Independence Day!

What a wonderful epitome of a place: "...the land of the free and the home of the brave"

I grew up (in England) amid Western films about 'cowboys and Indians' and, later, frontiers people - women eking out a living from the land (like Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman, Little House on the Prairie, the Waltons etc) and the realisation that the so-called 'Indians' were so wise and civilised and nothing like they had been portrayed in old films. In my teens came the influence of McDonalds and baseball caps and Dallas and Dynasty - the era of oil magnates, followed by all kinds of crime scene stuff. Then I met real Americans and, dismissing the Hollywood view of life, saw the wonder that is America! What a place! What incredible people! So vast, so diverse, so founded on ideas of individual freedom and opportunity; and founded on the idea that each person can think for him/herself! And a place from which so many new ideas emerge because of the diversity! Could there ever have been a more ideal setting for such a 'dream' than a whole untried Continent, ranging from forests and swamps to deserts and mountains, with such a diversity of species of animals, and into which came people like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, who spoke such wisdom as:

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

And: "A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference. "

and who founded a nation built on the idea that each person has the power to think for him/herself!

God bless America, Americans, and freedom of belief, freedom of race, of dreams and Happy Independence Day from England to everyone American!
Happy Independence Day!