Let Freedom Ring!

For the first time in 8 years, America can truly celebrate Independence Day. The fireworks will glow brighter, the mustard will be a bit tarter as its seeps into the steaming hotdogs, the watermelon will be juicier and seeds will be spit ever further as Americans and non-Americans all over the world breath easier, safe in the knowledge that the most blatant assualt on our masterpiece of governance, the US Constitution, has been successfully parried.

Our amazing system of balances, of voting and an ever vigilant (although always devoted more to sensationalism than truth) press has prevented the former president and his coterie of neo-conservatives from manipulating fear to the maximum, from suspending our unalienable rights as humans, Americans (eavesdropping on our calls, reading our emails, lying about the effects of global warming, lying about the reason to go to war, just to name the most obvious assualts).

Freedom does ring this year, July 4th, 2009 and its resonance will be more harmonious for we, all of us, not just the wealthy, not just members of the GOP, not just buddies from Texas or companies formerly run by Cheney, are recipients of national government with our interests at its heart. This year, we have a president from the people, for the people and his every waking moment is spent on actually trying to solve the problems of our nation that he has inherited.

Of course, the other half of the poltical spectrum, so-called Americans, so-called Patriots, root daily for his failure. His stimulus, they say, has failed. Well, just a point of reference for those nay-sayers, $700 billion is like a baseball jumping off an aluminum bat: if you are standing 50 feet a way, you hear it immediately, if you are standing 1000 feet away, you see the hit but only hear a slight ping after a few seconds. So, too, this money has been dropped into our vast economy and so too, it's ping will only reach the outer realms of our vastness much later this year.

President Obama and his family are fully aware of the amazing opportunity the American people have given them and what are they doing with it? They are giving as much as they can back. They know just how much a meeting with the president can mean for a young man struggling to survive the effects of poverty. They appreciate that their garden at the White House just may get some families to rethink their junk-eating habits; they know that by going to a local ice cream shop for a cone just may inspire a family to do the same with their kids which just may make a difference. They know that their love-affair is inspiring to many and this is what our nation needs now, today, July 4th, 2009 after the last 8 years of pure, sad, totally-un-American arrogance.

President Obama is defending our interests. He is trying to get us all health care, he is trying to save the auto industry, his is trying to prevent, what may already be unpreventable thanks to a decade lost, the ever-worsening effects of global warming, he has gone after the credit card companies (could you ever imagine W doing that?!), he is trying to make our nation better for all Americans, for all the world.

And, on the "war against terror" front, despite the rhetoric and diatribes of Cheney and the extreme, obstructionist right, he is making improvements that W. could never have dreamed of. His speech in Egypt on national television was simply a masterpiece of statesmanship. He showed the world, the masses who are very, very tired of Al Qaeda, that there is a road to peace that does not involve complete submission to a Western-Jewish-Christian world.

On this 4th of July, freedom is ringing and I want to thank President Obama, his family and all Americans who made his presidency possible. And to those against him then and still so today, I say, don't worry. We, the majority, are now in control and despite your best efforts, we will work to protect our America from your endless attempts at making America weak, poor and just plain mean.

(Oh, yeah, watch the flying bullets, as I am sure there will be more concealed hand guns at your bbq's tomorrow than our ours and, everyone knows that alcohol and hand guns just don't mix.)