Betty Kelly

It’s July and another month has left us. As we all know, July 4 was Independence Day.

We all get extra days off work and we all like that. But its also a nice time to remember the important song, “America the Beautiful” written by Katherine Lee Bates in 1895. She was a teacher from Wellesley College who went West back when the traveling was difficult and slow. She wrote about everything she saw and felt. Is it any wonder we love this song?

The Fourth of July is a good time to remember freedom, freedom we have all taken for granted. Freedom is the most wonderful gift we all have. Freedom gives — you, me, all of us — the ability to become what we want to become. Men and women have fought for our country and even given their lives for us — for the right to be free.

What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between “freedom to” and “freedom from.”