HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

Happy Fourth of July to everyone on our blog. The Turleys will hold our annual Fourth of July celebration with fireworks tonight with a cookout, pies, and of course fireworks. However, this year I am also going to watch my Chicago Cubs play the Nationals as the guest of a friend. I will then return to watch them again on Sunday with one of my sons and a very generous friend and his son. (Yes I am completely scarfing off friends).

I love this holiday. Despite the continued assault on civil liberties and our rather dysfunctional politics, it is a day that unites Americans over a common convenant of faith in representative government. While a new Gallup poll shows a record drop in the satisfaction of Americans over their freedoms, this holiday reminds us that we do have the ability to change our government — and a duty to do so. Moreover, this holiday we have a victory to celebrate in the unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court in rejecting the Obama Administration’s effort of strip citizens of privacy protections over their cell phone records and data.

Indeed, the erosion of our civil liberties should only make us more appreciative of our Framers and more committed to regaining what they left us . . . and what we have lost. I remain an optimist about this country despite a depressing decade as a civil libertarian. Hell, I am a Cubs fan . . . I was raised looking at next year for a turn around.

So there for a great Independence Day to everyone on the blog. I will hoist a burger and a beer in your honor today.