To all our American OF members, wishing you all the best on this the 4th July.

Celebrate well and stay safe.
Cheers

 

Am looking forward to our cook out. Weather looks disappointing where I am but at least it’s dry.

Happy 4th July everyone!!!

Being a Brit in the US this meme always makes me chuckle.

 

Happy Independence Day! I hope you all make the best of it and stay safe.

 

Me too! Being a citizen of both countries now (became a US citizen in 2004...ceremony on the USS Intrepid, which was cool) I joke with friends that I have mixed feelings on the 4th. Not true though, it’s a great day. Plus I have now lived in the US for 27 years, which is 3 years longer than I lived in the UK. Not lost my Wigan accent though!

 

Saddest, as an American, of my life

 

Mixed feelings: watching my mother-in-law drive over a cliff with my new Mercedes.

 

Indeed, me to, and I didn't mean that this particular 4th is a great day, just historically.

 

I am really concerned about what's happening, beyond numbers. Know your enemy..

 

I’ve only been here 7 years, with 40 in the UK. But what’s going on here in the last 3 years really calls into question whether my wife and I will look at citizenship.

I just can’t see us reciting the pledge of allegiance at the moment. I’m not looking for a political debate - just agree with earlier comments - this 4th is very different.

 

Happy 4th!

 

I hear you.

 

My mother came to America at 12 in 1945. Her father was then 45 and a POW. He arrived 2 years later. My father's grandfather came here from Ireland to escape poverty.

My father was a career Army officer who had served 2 years in Vietnam. I was in Desert Storm. When I left for the war, my mother cried and said she had given enough. In spite of that, my family owes a great debt for what we were given.

I only say this to establish the background for my sentiments. A friend sent me a copy of Frederick Douglass's speech from a past 4th of July. If you haven't read it, it is worth your time.

I am hopeful that our nation can live up to the high ideal that we claim to value and that the world had expected of us, that of freedom for all men and women.

It ain't over yet, the story is still being written. Peace.

 

Change is hard and people struggle with it. I'm not overly concerned that the future is going to be worse for very long. This is a temporary situation like other dark times in our history.