God bless America

I have nothing profound to say about today, the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on America. I have nothing to say that hasn't already been said, and I'm no less patriotic for not saying anything. 

I love this country, I love our military, I love our freedom, and I love my God. I'll sum up my feelings with this photo, which stirs such emotion for me:

Taken on October 31, 2006, looking up at Old Glory through the roof of the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Long may she wave!

God bless the United States of America!

Rock the ...

VOTE! Get out there and do it! Please don't say you don't know what's going on or who to vote for. Do some quick research today if need be and make your voice heard, please. It is such a privilege to live in the democracy we do. :)


I'll leave you with some words from my one of my favorite writers, Mr. Henry David Thoreau, in his essay Civil Disobedience:


"The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to — for I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better than I, and in many things even those who neither know nor can do so well — is still an impure one: to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it. The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual. Even the Chinese philosopher was wise enough to regard the individual as the basis of the empire. Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. "


"That government is best which governs least."


Do your civic duty, be ye obedient or disobedient, and go VOTE!