INDEPENDENCE DAY 2008

Just before the Independence Day parade in Anchorage, the Channel 11 TV reporter asked me what made the 4th of July celebration so special. A simple question, but the answer is difficult to put into words. Obviously, Independence Day is our nation’s birthday. But so what?

Well, I feel Blessed to have been born in the United States of America. I wasn’t born in America through anything I did. I want to deserve the privilege of being an American.

There’s no nation in the world that enjoys both the substance and the spirit of our country. No one is trying to escape America - but seemingly half the world would like to immigrate here. There has to be a reason for that. Our problems, real and imagined, are infinitesimal compared to many other nations. Perhaps the words to “God Bless America” express best express what makes Independence Day so special. I wish I had thought to tell the TV reporter that.

This is my sixth time in the Anchorage Independence Day Parade. I’m there as a member of the legislature’s Joint Armed Services Committee, as a Vietnam veteran, and an Air Force retiree. I love a parade, and this parade best of all. This year I my daughter Mary – a surgical nurse at Alaska Regional Hospital - rode with me in the parade car.