I started up a conversation with the lady who was holding a sign that read: "90% Tax Increase for Congress!!" She told me that earlier, the "Don't Tread on Me" guy was sitting on the stone granite horse statue that was located on one corner across the street from the pond. He sat there for an hour, waving his huge "Don't Tread on Me" flag. The lady surmised that perhaps it got too hot (temp reached 100 degrees) and that is why he got off of the horse. A half hour later, I got the chance to ask the "Don't Tread" guy about the incident. He told me that someone reported him to the city and an official came by and told him to get off of it.
The newspaper account estimated that there were about 1,000 people at the rally. Apparently, there were only four Obama supporters there.
Several attendees who went to the rally on April 14th said that the first rally had twice as many participants. We can only guess as to why many people chose not to participate in this one. July 4th holiday plans? The heat? Or, apathy? Who knows.
I did sense that the people there were fiercely loyal to our country. The signs they held were proof of that. On the other hand, their total disgust for our current government - including Democrats and Republicans in Congress - was quite evident.
Before picking up Donna and driving to the rally, I looked in a few stores for some patriotic items. Target had NOTHING. I was saddened and disappointed to see that. In their typical "$1.00" section at the front of the store, I did see a shelf label that said, "flags - 2 for $1.00." That made me feel a bit better. Perhaps they just sold out of everything. There were also some children's rubber sandals with the stars and stripes on them. That didn't thrill me so much. I thought of how ObamaFRAUD and clueless Congress are trampling on our rights, freedom and spending OUR MONEY like DRUNKEN SAILORS (just a saying). Putting a flag design all over the sandals doesn't honor our nation very well. Just my humble opinion, of course.
Next, I went into our local Old Navy store. They had a small display of T-shirts that had a flag design (similar to the one I was wearing) with "Old Navy 2009" under it. I was hoping to find a visor to wear. They had some hats, but I don't like to wear hats.
Then I went into Michaels. That is where I found some flags. There were some craft items and Mylar balloons, but not much else.
I was very saddened by this. Perhaps I just went to the wrong stores, but I can remember seeing hundreds of items for sale on previous July 4th holidays! What happened this year? Is it just because of the economy? Or, was it due to apathy on the part of American retailers? I don't know.
Lastly, I gave it one more shot and walked into Albertsons grocery store. Every holiday, they usually have a big display of items to buy for each particular occasion. Not so this time. No big display, only a few mylar balloons. The next day I went to Stater Bros. for some groceries. The only thing that store had were patriotic flag paper plates and napkins!
Why?
Why so little merchandise available to the public to celebrate our Nation's 233 years of existence since its birth?
It saddened me. Truly saddened me!
Is Independence Day going in the same direction as other holidays? The secular powers-that- be have turned Christmas into "Winter break." Easter is more about bunnies, Easter eggs and baskets rather than the celebration of Christ's Resurrection. Is Independence Day now just another holiday where people pay less attention to its true meaning and more attention to their own whims of gratification?
The Obama File drew my attention to an article where the author described this July 4th as "divided and grim. "
I don’t think I’ve ever seen my country so divided and depressed on the Fourth of July in my lifetime and -- no matter what Bob Dylan dreamed up -- I’m not young, forever or otherwise. That includes the Vietnam War period when both sides at least had some conviction and excitement for the future, even if wrong. Not so now. The current situation is grim.
Obama is already over. In six short months, the now-spattered bumper stickers with "Hope and Change" seem like pathetic remnants from the days of "23 Skidoo," the echoes of "Yes, we can" more nauseating than ever in their cliché-ridden evasiveness. Although they may pretend otherwise, even Obama’s choir in the mainstream media seems to know he’s finished, their defenses of his wildly over-priced medical and cap-and-trade schemes perfunctory at best. Everyone knows we can’t afford them. His stimulus plan -- if you could call it his, maybe it’s Geithner’s, maybe it’s someone else’s, maybe it’s not a plan at all -- has produced absolutely nothing. In fact, I have met not one person of any ideology who evinces genuine confidence in it.
On the foreign policy front, it’s more embarrassing. He switches positions every day, such as they are, while acting like a petit-bourgeois snob with our allies and then, when people with genuine passion for democracy emerge on the scene (the courageous Iranian protesters), behaves like a cringe-worthy, equivocating creep. Enough of Obama.
Continue reading here . . .
I don't necessarily agree with the rest of the post at that link. However, this sentence is certainly apropos:
But don’t get me wrong - I love my country. And maybe it’s because I love it so much that I am so depressed. Yes, I know it’s always darkest before the dawn and all that. And I want to “look at the bright side,” as my grandmother always advised. Still, these are dark times and it’s hard to pretend otherwise. Obama’s eager aide-de-camp Rahm Emanuel wants to seize on this as an opportunity - and perhaps he’s right. Only not in the way Emanuel would suggest, ramming through Obama’s ill-conceived notions.
I think that the phrase, "I love my country...and maybe it's because I love it so much that I am so depressed" applies to millions of people as they somberly celebrated our Nations' founding this year. How much longer will we be able to enjoy our God given, hard fought for freedoms? Benjamin Franklin once said, "We have given you a Republic, if you can keep it."
Where are the gatekeepers??? That's what I want to know!!
Actually, I do know who the gatekeepers are. They are first and foremost, our brave, bold and honorable military!! God bless each and every one of you!!
Next, the additional gatekeepers are you, me, and every other citizen of the United States of America who value our Constitutional Republic and the freedom that title represents!
There are a lot of comments to read under the article at the Pajamas Media site! At first glance, the following one certainly caught my eye:
. john m e:
I think the funk we feel is perhaps a function of despair…despair brought on by the inexplicable degradation of our fellows. There is a profound sadness when the minorities behave in a bigoted fashion and those we thought loved freedom appear surprisingly willing to toss it overboard for little rewards or facile atonement. When our educators, we so deeply respected seem to have defiled our youth for a bit of silver…despair when we wonder why the defenders of our freedom seem no where to be found. So certain was I that transgressors would rise above their petty, driven, self absorption to rally to the duty of the general good…the welfare of our most needy, and reestablish the moral compass once the hallmark of civility and liberty …USA style.
Our nation, a noble experiment, threatened from within, cries out….
Jul 3, 2009 - 9:22 pm
Sally comments brings back the hope that we have when we trust the Lord Jesus Christ and realize that we have recovered from bad moments in history before:
10. Sally:
I don’t know how old you are but I think old enough to have lived through the 70s, yes? Talk about a demoralized and depressed nation! It was a horrible time. We had just lost a war and 58,000 lives in Vietnam, the President was forced to resign, there were gas lines, inflation was through the roof, American hostages were being held in Iran and nobody seemed to have a clue what to do about any of it. I’m sure that there have been other times as well in our history when all was bleak and the future drab and unappealing. And yet we endured. And survived. And better times arrived.
It helps me to remember that right now there are thousands upon thousands of American men and women, most of them much younger than I am, who are serving in war zones and putting themselves in harm’s way and every day when they get up they put on a uniform with an American flag on the shoulder and they go out to face the day, knowing it might be their last. They don’t get to spend a lot of time being depressed and sad. They have to believe there is something worth fighting for. They have to stay the course. And surely a country that was unworthy of the sacrifice would not be this privileged, to have such fine men and women willing to lay down their lives for her.
Maybe we’re just in a dry season right now. The first decade of the new century has been an eventful one for us, from the disputed 2000 Presidential election to 9/11 to the Iraq war and now the financial meltdown with the bad economy and lots of fraud and scandal and failed leadership everywhere. But we’ll fix it. We always do.
Jul 3, 2009 - 10:03 pm
God Bless America!!
Hat Tips:
The Obama File
Pajama Media