Jul 04 2007
With Right Hand Over My Heart
“I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic
for which it stands.
One nation under God,
indivisible,
with Liberty
and Justice for all.â€
I began my post of A Tour Of Robben Island with these words:
I am an American. I was born into a democratic and free society.
I have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from discrimination and freedom to love.
I know I am lucky. I know that the freedoms I enjoy were hard earned.
I know that for many, freedom is still just a dream.
. . . .
As a child I attended school and every morning, with my right hand over my heart, I’d face the flag and pledge my allegiance. As I child I had no real idea of the meaning behind the pledge.
As an adult, I am proud to be an American.
An excerpt of the Declaration of Independence:
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Happy 4th!
Ricardo: Thanks! Enjoy the Summer Heat …and any fireworks that may happen in the sky or elsewhere..
Happy fourth from me too!!!!
Jill: I can just picture you – out in your bikini (!!) holding a brown sweating bottle of beer…CHEERS!
Happy fourth everybody!
I do love this country. There’s things to be changed, but I love our freedom. Gods bless America!
Hey! You joined me in celebrating the day!
Rained most of the day.
I was *supposed* to be in a bikini though!!!!!! Cleared up in time for the fireworks though & I had that bottle of beer…okay four bottles… 
Irisi: I hope your friend showed up – you mentioned you may have been stood up?
What I love about America is that we can actually COMPLAIN about the stuff that is going on! Freedom of Speech!
HMTKSteve: I gather you got my comment on your site? Or are you referring to the fact that I posted something regarding Independence Day?
I is an American!! I have that “A” in ABC, remember? I’s proud to be an American.
Jill: Too bad about the rain. It was gorgeous here. I had family over for dinner (no BBQ) and opened a bottle of wine (what else!).
The American in ‘ABC’ is an adjective. I am not an adjective! I would never go around saying I was an American-born Italian/Scottsman/etc… (yes, I am a mutt).
Either you are an American or you are not. Classifying yourself as an American-whatever tells me that you do not understand that to be an American is to be a part of the great melting-pot. You do not need to lose all of your identity but some parts must give way to what is America. Otherwise, why are you here?
When I was going to school we never did that. At the time there was a big debate on whether it should be a mandatory routine of the day.
Someone lost. We didn’t do it. I’m not sure if they do it in the schools of NYC.
Hope your 4th was a good one.
HMTKSteve: I actually agree with you – I am an American! When people have asked me “but where are you ….from?” wanting to know my “country of origin” in order to classify what type of Asian I am, sometimes I say, “United States” or my city of birth or whatever.
Sometimes I say, “ABC” just because I don’t feel like getting into it. I get a bit tired of the Asian-American, Hispanic-American, yadda-yadda when really I think that if we’re in this “melting pot” don’t we all end up being “American”
UT: I think I only did the P of A in elementary school and I vaguely recall the debate about whether or not it should continue.
My 4th was very nice. Wonderful weather, had a run in the afternoon and then had family over for dinner. I have this one meal kinda “down” now – a little bit of prep-work and all the items can be timed to be done in an hour: brown rice, Bourbon chicken and roasted vegetables. Healthy and low/good fat (olive oil!)
How about you? I hope you had a great one!
I vividly remember when I stepped across the border from San Diego into Tijuana thinking that I no longer have my Constitutional rights. I took a step backwards and I regained my Constitutional rights. With one step forward into Mexico I no longer had those rights.
We tend to think that our rights are solid and secure. Actually, we have rights because we believe we have rights and therefore we build a system to value those rights. These beliefs must be renewed with each upcoming generation so that all our rights, even unpopular rights, will continue to be protected.
Jake: I can see you really appreciate America and our Constitution!
Thanks for the reminder of our belief system, our foundation. You described it well. I love that image of the dividing line between Rights and No Rights.
That sounds tasty. Maybe I should have ate a healthier meal.
My 4th was different this year. I found myself not traveling out of town. But I did hit the stables, get a horse and took it for ride. After that I hit up a restaurant. Had two servings of fish and chips along with a nice drink.
I was exhausted after all that.
UT: your 4th sounded very nice! I wish I could go horseback riding but I am SO ALLERGIC I end up wheezing fairly quickly. Plus I am so short that I’m practically doing a split on the horse and I get lots of horsey laughter if I try to kick ‘em a bit in the sides – I don’t have leverage OR spurs so the horse is thinking, “did I feel something? don’t think so..”
You live near stables? Or is this Central Park? You live in NYC I think?
Nothing wrong with eating unhealthily once in a while. Although you did mention a trip to Mickey D’s…
I don’t live any where near a stable but a dog pound isn’t too far from me.
I took a trip to the Bronx. NYC Parks & Recreation has a couple of stables. One in the Bronx, as I mentioned, and then another in Brooklyn.
UT: hahaha! Leave it to you to state, “but a dog pound isn’t too far from me.”