Here are some Independence Day quotes that I found today...
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
We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls. ~Robert J. McCracken
Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. ~Thomas Macaulay
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. ~Abraham Lincoln
Independence Day, as such, is always a mixed experience for me. Sure, celebrating our independence is worthwhile; however, I usually run into some ass who sets my teeth on edge today by insisting that taking away someone's rights is a good way to express patriotism.
"Marriage ain't fer gays!" "Them Mexicans are out to steal our jobs!" "Anybody who don't like America out to be shot--it's my Second Amendment Right!" "Why shouldn't it be 'One Nation Under God'?"
If you paint taking away someone's freedom (or pursuit of happiness?) with red, white, and blue, does that make it patriotic?
Hello? Beuller? Beuller?
