Saylorville Lake - Hazy Sunshine 94 degrees
It’s Independence Day! The made-up birthday for the United States. Everyone is a patriot today. The campgrounds are buzzing with activity and the boat ramps are closed due to the fact that the reservoir is doing what it was designed to do; hold back water and protect Des Moines and Polk City from worse flooding than they are already having.
In this world we live in today it is easy to get lost in the caustic politics, relentless newsfeed topics decrying one or the other of the political parties and incessant blame on whose fault it is that our ‘American Dream’ is in jeopardy. I have to admit I’m not very optimistic about the future of this country as I have known it, my first 53 years, but all things change and change hurts. Stay with me for a minute… Yes, I despise our current president but more than that I have felt for years that the root cause of our inability to deliver ‘liberty and justice for all’ lies in our two party, tribalistic system. The Great American Experiment is a failure. Not because it was a bad idea, but because human nature is inherently selfish and greedy. In the caveman days it was a simple matter of survival of the fittest. Power has always corrupted once good people and money is at the root of all that is evil about our government. That aside I feel very lucky to be a natural citizen of this country. I have travelled in developing countries and countries ruled by martial law and in spite of all that is wrong today we are very lucky to live here.
This full-time vagabond lifestyle we live these days would not even be a pipe dream in many countries. We take our RV, collect our retirement income via direct deposit, pay what bills we have online and go about our business without any thought that our government may impede our will to travel and explore. No papers required to cross state lines. Our credit cards work where ever we swipe them and the world turns.
We live in a relatively safe society, really, we do. At least we don’t have to worry about a mortar sailing through our dining room window in the middle of breakfast, or our kids being rounded up by a martial government to force them into a life of soldier hood for the current regime. As women we can marry whom ever we want. We really do have it good in the United States of America.
The best part of celebrating our freedom is the reminder, that if we hate our government we can say as much without going to jail. And we as citizens have the ultimate power, OUR VOTE! We get to decide who holds office. Vote intelligently, get involved and above all thank your lucky starts that you are an American.
Happy Independence Day!
Until tomorrow…
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