Thanks to all those who serve us

Happy third, fourth and fifth of July!

What a weekend it's been, with summer at last in full swing.

This holiday engenders hot air balloons and fireworks in the skies. There are races, parades, picnics and myriad other activities. Like a beehive, everyone is trying to make the most the holiday.

Any successful activity takes planning and willing people who give their time to prepare for the fun.

In the larger activities there are layers of people who make the events happen and prepare for our safety.

In addition to the moms and dads and committees planning various events, no doubt the activities impact police, firefighters and anyone in the business of assisting the public.

Last week I woke up at 3 a.m. and, as everyone does when they wish they could fall back to sleep but can't, I thought about all the weekend's events.

I felt some panic at the several parties I would be planning.

Then, knowing things always seem harder than they are, I stilled my mind by thinking of past July Fourths, feeling gratitude for all the people responsible for some of the wonderful times I've experienced.

One of the most prominent was my husband's mother, Louise Young, who was "Queen of the Fourth of July." Every year until we moved from Utah we could count on her to have a wonderful barbecue, with delicious sloppy joes and root beer that she made with dry ice in her treasured milk cans.

Besides shopping, cooking and cleaning for her large family, she made sure to reserve a space along the parade route for any and all of us who came.

She was so constant that we all just took for granted that she would plan and run herself crazy preparing for us. What a grand lady she was.

Then I thought all the way back to 1776 and the brave people who signed the Declaration of Independence.

Evidently these are people we also take for granted. Just witness the 12 percent to 13 percent voter turnout in the recent primaries.

That low percentage is really unacceptable when, especially for women, you think of how hard it was to be able to vote in the first place. Just what are the other 87 percent to 88 percent who didn't vote thinking?

Benjamin Franklin, one of the 56 signers of the Declaration, said, "Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature."

Voting in any election is a privilege and a responsibility.

My thoughts also turned to the people serving our country who can't go to the parades or picnic with friends and family. The fireworks they are watching are real.

Whether we agree or not about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the fact is they are representing us while we picnic and enjoy ourselves.

I am grateful for them.

Franklin also said, "There was never a good war, or a bad peace."

On this fifth of July, 2010, I hope you will join me in thanking all those who serve us and pray that a peace may soon come.

e-mail: Sasyoung2@aol.com