A Grateful Citizen

June 29th, 2010 | Happy Birthday, America.   I didn’t get you a gift, but I wanted you to know on this special day that I still consider you a gift to me.  I know I tend to take you for granted and at times I seem to be indifferent towards the problems you face.  I complain as if these challenges are new, but the truth is freedom has never been easy.  You continue to be a work in progress.  I am quick to point out your faults and slow to pick up on what is still good with your landscape.  I know that you are much more than a place, you are a principle.  A principle birthed from the conviction of those who believed that freedom was a cause worth fighting for.  They sought to form a government that would and I might add, has stood the test of time.   You are not perfect, but there is certainly nowhere else that I would rather rest my head or raise my family than on your shores. It is my prayer that on this, your 234th birthday, that we as a nation will once again lift our eyes unto the hills from where our help comes.  May your first official words remind us of what our country is all about: “…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness….”   Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776 A grateful citizen,