As a kid, this was always a very special weekend for us. It was a chance to really celebrate being an American. Huge picnics, parades, the whole works, with everyone coming together for it all. I had my very own  silk flag, carefully stored all year, just for this special weekend.  

That was a very long time ago. So much has changed, and somehow along the way, the meaning of word “patriot” has changed so much I can no longer use it with comfort.

This left me having to search for an alternative way to view “Independence Day” this year. What does the word “Independence” mean to me, now that mine eyes are wide open as to the real state of this union?

Well, I still have the independence to choose how I live my life.  No, I don’t have full choice over all of it.  I can’t marry my partner, or live where or how I’d LIKE to live, but still, I have retained my full independence to control the quality of my life.

I still get to wake up each morning and decide where and how I spend my available life energy for this day. I can choose a cause and work hard at it. I can raise my voice where and when I wish.

I can choose the kind of people I wish to align myself with.

I have the security of a roof over my head, because there is still such a thing as “Social Security” to fall back on when the body fails. I know that for now, anyway, I won’t  be refused emergency medical care.

I feel fairly safe traveling the city street to get to where I need to go. I know I’m not likely to get caught in crossfire (as long as I stay out of certain neighborhoods,) and the road under me is not likely to explode.

I known that when my eyes hunger for skin colors other than white, I don’t have to go far to find them here, and to be near the sense of shared community that seems so much more visible in this cities non-white neighborhoods.

For all of the corruption, warmongering, and incredible greed and dangerous arrogance that seems to be running most of our government, I know I am still a free American surrounded by millions of other free Americans who live mostly unremarkable, ordinary  lives devoted to all of the genuine principles this country was formed on, every day we all live.

We are the real American Dream, in my book. Ordinary Americans, who do the best we can with what we have, day in and day out, who never ever make the news, for all of the courage and determination and commitment that takes.

It is this America I can still celebrate whole heartedly. The America full ordinary people of all colors , the warriors and the hearth keepers alike. People who truly live lives of compassion in action and quietly take care of each other, always. People who work hard every day to care for those who cannot take care of themselves. People who toil day in and day out fighting for needed change from inside and outside the systems.  Parents who  put parenting first, over all else, who are bringing up the hope for our future. Ethical business people who still value people as much as as profits.  People who still know the meaning of the words like  “enough”, “sharing of resources” and “genuine concern for a shared planet.” People who truly can “live and let live”  regarding differences among us, and indeed, learn to celebrate them as assets that serve all concerned.

There are so many millions of us.  So many millions of the “free and the brave.”

This has helped me regain some balance.  It is so easy to get weighed down by all that is so very wrong, that I forget all that is still so right, about my country and my fellow Americans.

So to those of you who gather here and may be reading, I celebrate you on this July 4th weekend, each and every one of you. And all the rest of the Authentic Americans who have not forgotten what America was meant to stand for.