Happy Independence Day!

For my entire adult life, I have been proud of my country. I am proud to live in the middle of it all, in the open flat plains full of cattle and wheat fields.

As a child I was taught that one should love their country, and that is is our right as U.S. citizens to question and disagree with our government without fear of persecution. My childhood was odd with a hippie/socialist/feminist/suburban mom straight out of the L.A. ghetto, and a beat nik/ Navy/motorcycle cop father from the Canal Zone of Panama. And even though my mother had gone to jail for fighting the establishment, she still taught me that this country was great. We had the freedoms to tell a cop to go eff himself while pulling out of a rodeo and not fear an arrest. This is freedom of speech.

I have seen what the governments blacklist can do. I have been around people that questioned the government to the point that if it was the 1950's they would have been listed as a Communist. And I myself have fought things that I believe are not right. This is my country, and I will not see it run by a bunch of men that behave as children, and declare mine mine mine over everything they see.

But this is what makes me proud to be a U.S. citizen. Because I can question them, I can argue with them. And sometimes they listen and do what we the people want. And those are glorious moments.

We use to be an independent nation. And we are slowly making progress to be that once again. I am living my American Dream, one that is as old as this nation. And I hope that you too, our living yours.

Be proud of our nation, and our government when it deserves it. (Mark Twain, paraphrase)

I am Irish. I am Blackfoot Indian. I am female. I am an Independent. And I am American.

Let the made in China fireworks fly!