Musings on Independence Day

The Divine Mrs. M was lamenting last evening our offspring seem to take the July 4 celebration less seriously than they should.  Playing the Devil's Advocate, I opined as how our founding fathers were basically part of the 1% of their day and were certainly not fighting for freedom on behalf of the rest of the population.  Many were slave owners and four score and seven years later we fought a great Civil War costing over half a million lives.  Contrast that experience with Canada.  Our neighbor to the north stayed with Great Britain and reaped many benefits from the association, a bloodless independence not least among them.  Reflecting on that conversation with my better half, I realize I had not fully realized what the founders bequeathed to us.  Besides the political freedoms we take for granted, the culture they nourished made us the number one country for innovation as well as the leader in science.  Our children and grandchildren will grow up in a free society which still needs much improvement, but will allow them more freedoms than virtually any country on earth.  Score another one for Mrs. M.!