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I will begin by saying I got dressed and drove to town to pick up my friend to go and watch the fireworks with me. Passing by the courthouse, I wondered why there was no candy in the street left over from the parade. Then I thought, "Boy this new group of people promoting Johnson City is really on the ball, they have already cleaned up the streets." Then I drove over to my friend’s home and knocked on the back door but no one answered, then I went to the front door and rang the bell, again no answer, then I went to my car where I called her home, no answer. I then decided to look through the partially opened blinds to see if anyone was ‘hiding’ inside. Just then a car pulled up and it was my friend. I asked her where she had been and her reply was "why are you peeking in my window?"

Well here is the story. I do realize that today (Sunday) is the 4th of July, but for some reason I didn’t think the festivities would be held on a Sunday so I assumed (and one shouldn’t assume anything) that the festivities would be held on Saturday the 3rd. Well I was wrong, so I still have a chance to see the parade and go watch the fireworks.

I have heard that there is a move afloat to change the words to the Star Spangled Banner because some of the words in the song are too violent. I think it is the part that says, "and the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air"…can we do that? Can someone arbitrarily change Frances Scott Keyes lyrics? Can we and should we rewrite history? I hope not.

Watching the program ‘Sunday Morning’ last Sunday, much of the program was devoted to the 4th of July and how it has sadly become a day not to remember how this holiday came about but to celebrate (for some) a day off work and a chance to buy hot dogs and hamburgers and fireworks. Granted, it is more often a family day and family days are few and far between with so many people having to work two jobs (if they are lucky) in this economic down turn. Just how many of us think about how this day of celebration came to be?

I wrote my first published article when I lived in Beaumont, Texas, back in the 60’s during the time when the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs was current news. I had attended a Rice University football game with my husband and a moment of national pride hit a stadium full of American people when the Star Spangled Banner was played by the Rice University band as the American flag was hoisted that evening. You should have heard the roar and the clapping that sound and sight brought about that evening and an indescribable chill that stood the hair on the back of my neck on end. The reason for the chills, the clapping and the patriotism, was because it had seemed for a while that we might actually have a war here on our own soil and somehow it had been avoided. We tend to assume that wars happen somewhere else. They don’t. We have to work hard to keep that from happening and we should remember the lives it took to keep us free all these 234 years.

Much of the content of the program, ‘Sunday Morning’, was the bit about Norman Rockwell, the artist who was the epitome of Americanism, family life and patriotism. Do you remember the wonderful depictions he painted about family, war, holidays and just day to day life? Life was sweeter and gentler back in those prewar and war-time days, and even after. I don’t know if we will ever have that kind of life again but we can hope that it will prevail.

My husband’s grandmother was a painter and she did some wonderful things in the style of Norman Rockwell. We have three of her paintings and one is called The Patriot. She loved to tell the stories behind Mr. Rockwell’s paintings. The most famous of his paintings are probably The Four Freedoms inspired by a radio speech given by Franklin Delano Roosevelt back in the day. Those freedoms are Freedom to Worship, Freedom from Fear, Freedom from Want, and the Freedom of Speech. Some of you may remember these words of FDR… "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

I have read that some feel Norman Rockwell painted propaganda for America during a troubled time and if even if that is so, it gave hope to many. It was about the folks next door, the gentle sorrows and modest joys of those people that gave us all hope during that time. What harm could there be in that? We all need hope and we all need to remember what it cost to be able to say and do almost anything we want in a public place. We can even rant and rave about our beliefs and have it printed in a local newspaper without fear of retribution. That doesn’t happen in other countries.

We were in Maine one summer and it was the custom on Thursday evenings for the community to gather on the grounds of the local library in Boothbay Harbor where an ensemble of musicians from neighboring communities came together to play music. The first one we attended I will never forget. They played many patriotic tunes, Sousa marches, and I was so moved that I once again got goose bumps on my body listening and I swear had it not been so hard to get up off that blanket we had brought I might have marched! The next day I wrote a letter to the Editor of the paper saying I had never felt so much like I was IN a Norman Rockwell painting in my life. I could just picture the painting while listening as the band played, watching the people, both old and young, and the beautiful expressions on the faces of the listeners…Happy Fourth of July everyone and I hope you enjoyed the fireworks, and the "rockets red glare, and the bomb’s bursting in air," on this 4th of July like I did and don’t forget this holiday was hard fought!