Project 365: Day 185 -- Independence Day

Well, its a holiday, and everyone who knows us, knows that Kelly doesn't do holidays. While the intent of this holiday is to celebrate our country's beginning, our freedom from England, and the start of our Representative Republic, the reality is this has turned into a day of binge drinking and dumb-asses losing their fingers shooting off fireworks illegally in their back yard. The lake is one of the worst places to be on the Fourth of July weekend. So we tend to stay close to home, avoid the drunks and the crazies, and try to comfort our fur babies when the neighbors start shooting off fireworks until all hours of the night.

The holiday has so little meaning to most people anymore, that I find it appropriate to discuss during this time of great change in our nation. This wonderful country of ours has been on a path away from freedom and away from the Republic that was originally created, for quite sometime now. In recent years, the speed at which we travel that path has increased dramatically. Our government has been slowing taking away our freedoms and replacing them with government dependence. And we the people have allowed it, and even encouraged it. When our founding fathers formalized this nation, Benjamin Franklin was asked "What kind of government did you give us?" His response was "We have given you a Republic, if you can keep it." We haven't been working very hard to keep it, people. It's slipping away from us day by day.

So during this holiday that was designated to celebrate our freedom and independence, our sovereignty as a nation, don't forget the sacrifices made over two centuries ago that made it possible. Don't forget the sacrifices that were made during all the time since, and continue to be made today to maintain that freedom. Don't let those sacrifices be in vain. Thomas Jefferson said:

"... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J. Boyd, Ed., 1950)

It's time to refresh that tree of liberty.

In other news, former Tennessee Titans quarterback and NFL co-MVP Steve McNair was found shot to death today. The police aren't saying much at this time, but there are indications that perhaps he was having an extra-marital affair, since there was 20 year old girl who wasn't his wife found dead with him, in a condo he rented just 20 minutes from the home he shared with his wife and kids. Steve was a skilled and respected athlete, and a fan favorite here in Nashville. Even after signing with the Ravens for his last two seasons, when he retired he settled back here in Nashville, and opened a restaurant.

It seems that lately, being a celebrity can be fatal.

Since we don't do holidays, I don't have any photos of fireworks, parades or picnics. We spent the day like we spend most Saturdays--doing chores around the house, working in the yard...we did grill some steaks last night and watch a really bad movie. In case you haven't seen it, Syriana sucks. It's a convoluted plot with too many characters whose connections to each other are difficult to decipher, and the story never really goes anywhere. That was 2 hours and 8 minutes of my life I will never get back.

But I do have a photo of my favorite lens these days: