This is to everything we have to be proud of, thankful for, and stand up for in this country. Sometimes the reasons we do things are lost in the mayhem of celebration, but there are some traditions that never fail to touch me. This Independence Day my entire family is together—my older brother landed here from Burbank just this afternoon—and we had dinner with each other, our extended family, and close friends. Of course there are fireworks bursting in every direction outside; homemade (crust and all) apple and strawberry-rhubarb pies in the kitchen; one of my grandmothers dancing and ‘conducting’ the symphony on ‘A Capitol Fourth’ in the living room while my other grandmother sneaks a bite of every dessert (if it’s just a bite it doesn’t break a diet, right?); two guitars and a banjo jammin’ on the back porch as the ‘adults’ stand by and try to figure out the camcorder so they can capture it all on video; and, through everything, enough laughter and good spirits to make a camcorder unnecessary to ingrain this in our memories.

We have so many things to be proud of, thankful for, and stand up for in this country. Let us not forget this when we begin to trip up on the small things.