WHY I CRY AT THE JULY 4 PARADE

  As usual, I cried at the July 4 parade on Friday.  Why?

                  I cry because I'm grateful to have been born in America.  For all its warts and bumps, it's the most freedom-minded nation on earth; it's in our DNA.  If you travel around the world and say difficult things where no Bill of Rights exists, you find out very quickly what a liberty-minded DNA means. 

                  I cry because our military is used for so many horrible things.  From the CIA subverting and conniving on foreign soil to foment discontent and agitate for cultural change to meddling in foreign bases all over the world.  Bring 'em home and let's hoe our own garden.

                  I cry because the might of the U.S. is used to encourage other countries with more qualms to use our level of chemicals, food additives, vaccines, and drugs.

                  I cry because I've been blessed with a noble, sacred, righteous mission building soil, encouraging earthworms, and honoring the pigness of pigs.  Few people get to viscerally act out their heart's yearning this practically and interactively.

                  I cry because the founders of this country, for all their prejudices and faults, envisioned a tiny federal government and citizen-led policies but over the years this idea has eroded into a top heavy bureaucratic tyrannical burdensome federal government.

                  I cry because our children who used to know how to grow vegetables, split wood, and shoot guns grow up on screens without self-worth because they aren't needed and don't know how to do important practical tasks. 

                  I cry because the freedoms I enjoy were purchased by people who answered the call to defend liberty, many paying with their lives.  My debt to them can never be repaid, but I can bow my head and say "thank you." 

                  I cry because half my income is taxed away to support lazy good-for-nothings who milk the public teat and will cry for more until they destroy our nation.

                  I cry because presidents like Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Joe Biden added top-down federal market and financial intervention, stealing hard-earned money by making it worthless through inflation.

                  I cry because even though I love the farmland I own, I actually don't own it because if I fail to pay my property taxes the government can confiscate it so I'm on a never-ending treadmill to pay the government for the right to keep using the land I bought and worked.

                  I cry because the most powerful people in our society think I'm a bioterrorist, starvation advocate, and Typhoid Mary because I refuse to adhere to the vaccine, pharmaceutical, factory farm, chemical fertilizer, Genetically Modified Organism mentality.

                  I cry because I'm excited about tomorrow's opportunities but afraid they'll vanish due to societal dysfunction. 

                  I cry because I'm old enough to know the pain of failure and exhilaration of success, knowing how many people want to be spared pain on their way to gain and feeling exasperated that they feel entitled to privileges I've spent a lifetime finding. 

                  Do you cry, and if so, why?