Reflecting on the Fourth

I saw Michael Moore's 'SiCKO' and was (pardon the pun) sick just thinking about the deficiencies in American health care. I've watched the Bush administration turn Presidential codes of conduct, and often times actual law, into mockery. I've read and seen a lot in the media and in our culture that's so much more repulsive to me (Paris Hilton, anyone?) than the cold reality of tough and true news and awareness.

I woke up this morning hoping, praying that this particular Fourth of July would provide me a sign of our great country's strength and charm; I couldn't have found a better place than Amherst, NH.

Even honest political campaigning can seem outwardly annoying at times, especially in an early primary state like New Hampshire. Imagine thousands of politically-charged twenty-somethings (mostly) descending on usually-quiet and inconspicuous Granite State towns for nearly two years and turing the peaceful countryside into a battlefield of competing signs, stickers, cheers, and parade positions. You'd think all these New Hampshire voters would just shut themselves inside and watch TV as hundreds of volunteers from practically every presidential campaign processed through the historic town center of Amherst. Instead, marchers such as myself had our waves and enthusiasm reciprocated by spectators young and old, Dodd, Obama, Rudy, and Romney supporters alike.

Sure, fireworks displays are about as good here as they are anywhere else around the world, but there's something to be said for a country (judged by the class and character of one of its greatest states) where marching bands and veterans take their place among countless rows of presidential politicos--with a smile.