Please excuse all the fabulous pictures of myself. It was just so much fun to pose for them and where else to you show off all the pretty pictures if not your blog?
****My super secret mission has been completed. I was asked to write something for a specific news outlet but it was decided that the article would go in another direction. The good news is (thanks to the ineptitude of Microsoft products) you now get to read this HERE on the blog!***
I rode my bicycle bedecked with red, white and blue flowers and ribbons up to the staging area for the
Hillsboro Independence Day parade. I was late, I have 3 kids, a mother can't be standing around for hours waiting, an hour is all I could spare for waiting. 200 people were milling about chatting in what would be the largest entry in the parade. I scanned for people that I knew but couldn't find them amongst the crowd. I signed in and located my neighbor and her 14 year old son and a friend who had brought his wife and four children. Everyone else was a stranger.
As we talked many people noticed my sash that read "Samurai Mom" and
congratulated me on my great post and for giving it to Wu. We made the
acquaintance of others in the group. A successful marketer and graphic designer offered to help us with a project we are planning. A man who installs siding and roofing talked about how hard it is to get business lately. An immigrant woman who said that she already escaped the Soviet union and didn't want to have to escape again. There was a great sense of camaraderie in our desire to keep our freedoms. Most of us knew only a few in the group but we fell in together shoulder to shoulder as we made our way along the parade route smiling and waving.
Nestled amongst the flowers and ribbons in my wicker bike basket were 130 copies of The Declaration of
Independence and The
Constitution, I planned to hand them out to people along the way. It was my way of saying "Happy Birthday America, I know why we have fireworks and parades on this day."
At first I just handed my gifts to people on the street but soon I started asking the question "Why do we celebrate the 4
th of July?" as I handed them a copy. I asked young kids, older kids, teenagers, adults of all ages. To be fair,
they didn't expect a pop quiz when they came to the parade but I was amazed at the shrugs and blank looks. Many people said "Our freedom," "It's our country's birthday", and "It's
Independence Day." All true and good answers but only 3 people said "The signing of the Declaration of
Independence." Most received the booklets without a word but many expressed genuine gratitude for their very own copy of two of the most important documents ever written.
One man didn't like our group, I saw him across the street wearing a frown and giving us a double "thumb's down" sign. I crossed and offered him a copy of our founding documents and he shook his head and refused. "You don't like our
Constitution?" I asked, dumbfounded. His head was still shaking his refusal, thumbs still pointing down. "Why is this man at the 4
th of July Parade if he doesn't love the Declaration of
Independence?" I asked myself as I pedaled down Main Street. I realized with sadness that this man was so opposed to what he THOUGHT our message was that he didn't even understand what I was asking. His politics made him dig in his heels and refused to see what I was offering. He refused to listen to a fellow American.
That is why I fight for my country, why I teach my children about their country, why I gather at Tea Parties and rallies, for that angry man and for all of those smiling faces who might be reading the Declaration of
Independence right now...
Gone With The Wind
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