FOURTH

Red.  White.  Blue.  Nothing American can match a small town Fourth of July parade (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho).  Sidewalks crowded with all ages come to be reminded of our independence and the uneven rights that followed.   A time when the prism of patriotism no longer had but one facet.  An entire nation elevated, gathered for a day of flags, picnics and fireworks.

As a boy scout, I marched with veterans of the First War, and those recently returned from the Second.  The country was victorious and charged with hope and purpose.  Patriotism rang out.  We thought those golden years would never end.