Independence Day thoughts.

In the past, I've written about the things that I'm thankful for on Independence Day. I think I skipped last year because I was in a bad mood for a few months over the summer--and although I was grateful for many things, I was not very happy at the time, and not in the mood to wax poetic. Mercifully, today I'm re energized about being a free person and I'm ready to make my list of things that make me happy on this very special of all holidays:

The freedom to peaceably assemble. I'm so pleased that people still gather in public places to protest things that they don't like about their government. It's wonderful. I just wish people had been doing it all along throughout the last eight years as government grew larger and took away the people's rights a little piece at a time.

The internet is still mostly free. Well, we still have to pay for access on a monthly basis, but for the most part we can go and find the information and entertainment we need without paying anything else. I foresee a time in the future when that may not be so, or what we can find out there will be controlled to a degree that it's not really free in any way...

People are building and remodeling buildings in an environmentally sensitive manner. This is really cool and I'm stoked that people are coming around to the whole "green building" thing. I'm learning about architecture and construction and green building practices right now. I had no idea when we moved away from Utah that I would be learning more about this kind of stuff, but I'm fascinated by it and I'm pleased to no end that I'm learning about it tangentially via my employment. Before we sold our last business, I wanted the next business I started to be a green construction company that built really cool subdivisions for really cool people that didn't want to live in some kind of hideous McMansion subdivision with a name like "Rolling Hills" or "Oxford Commons" or some other horrible crap like that. Then the economy and real estate crashed--at least I still have my dream. And I'm learning about green construction basics right now, so perhaps in time I may see my next business idea come to fruition. I can only hope...

I saw Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell with my own eyes. Last fall my company flew my husband and I to Philadelphia for the annual company party. The first thing I wanted to do as soon as I got off the plane was go to Independence Hall. I didn't get there in time to go in, but I saw the building where the Constitution was written and argued over, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and then I saw the Liberty Bell. It was a surreal moment looking in at the bell. It's so iconic, I wasn't sure what I was feeling. Joy. Sadness. Amazement. Love. Its inscription: "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof." And so I shall. Of course the founding fathers would be rolling in their graves if they knew what was happening to the country with the government intrusion into the economy right now, and the INSANE taxes we pay at every turn.

I'm happy I still have a job. It could be worse. My whole firm was cut back to a four day work week last month. I'm making quite a bit less money, but there is something to be said for the pace of a three-day weekend. Maybe it's time to start that new business venture I've been dreaming about since 2006. I have time to do something about that now.

And remember, everyone...it's INDEPENDENCE DAY, not July 4th. I hate when people call this holiday July 4th.