"Do they have a fourth of July over there?"
she asked me with questions in her innocent eyes.
My first thought was to say,
"Yes, silly girl, EVERYONE has a fourth of July".
Her question deserved more.
Where do I start?
I invited her to sit beside me
as the swing groaned in the summer breeze.
I started to tell her
what the Fourth of July REALLY means.
I told her about breaking away from oppression,
Fighting to gain freedom of religion.
"So we can talk to baby Jesus?" she asked me.
"Yes, or anyone else that we believe" I answered.
I told her about how we fought for freedom
so that everyone would be treated the same.
I told her how we fought wars
on behalf of our friends in neighboring nations.
How we donated our troops for the cause in 2 major
world wars and countless conflicts.
I went on to tell her about our men and women
in uniform and those who work along side of them
in jeans & a t-shirt, helping to build homes.
I talked of the suits legislators, lobbyists and lawyers,
politics, poetry and prison.
I told her about those who died in the name of
protest, power and pride
those who dedicated their lives to insure
the freedoms that we have come to know.
Before we left to join the others
for the barbeque, she asked me again:
"So those other nations don't have a fourth of July, do they?"
To that I said: "Yes, they will all have July 4th,
but not everyone has Independence Day".
Andrea Maglione
