Happy, Happy Birthday America!

Happy 235th Birthday America! I still believe in you and honor the original formation of our country.

America, since it’s founding, has been called the “Great Experiment” and we continue to play that role in the world today.

We created a democracy and have dedicated ourselves to creating other democracies across the world. “If you could just learn to govern yourselves like we do, your country would be perfect.”

New democracies often perform better than our own as they begin to celebrate the privilege of self-governance. Larger percentages of their population cast ballots, people are truly involved in the selection of their leaders and everyone values the opportunity to participate in the process since they have memory of oppression.

It is clear that America’s memory of oppression has faded. Few American born residents today recall the lessons of our history and even fewer value what we went through to become free.

Yet, millions are drawn to our country every year so that they can celebrate this freedom of oppression and hopefully achieve success in our capitalistic system. We do not always welcome them with open arms but they keep coming anyway – drawn to the bright light of hopes and dreams we offer.

Let us pause for a moment today and appreciate our privilege. We are truly blessed to live in the “Great Experiment” country. While our media mostly tell us what is wrong with our land and elected leaders flail around difficult issues, it is sometimes hard to remember how blessed we truly are to live here.

So, raise a glass of lemonade, iced tea, cold beer or whatever you choose and say, “Happy Birthday America. I’m glad I live here!”