Independence Day!

And what do Quakers do on July 4? We had a Meeting for Learning (that's Quaker for "Adult Religious Education") on the peace testimony.

Then, time for a nap. I came downstairs to find Ken watching 1776, probably my favorite movie for 4th of July (how can you resist a musical about the writing of the Declaration of Independence, with lots of jokes from Ben Franklin?). We skipped the end, leaving the Continental Congress wrangling over the wording of the Declaration, to have dinner at...Hana, our favorite Japanese restaurant.

Then we came home to Yankee Doodle Dandy with James Cagney. What a great celebration of old Broadway and musical theatre in the pre-Rodgers and Hammerstein days.

All really very American, enjoying freedom of religion, food of a former enemy turned ally, and songs of so many great things about our country.

"The land I love, the home of the free and the brave."

So many people worked and still work to keep it so: those men of the first continental congress, Abigail Adams exhorting her husband to "Remember the Ladies" (a hope that didn't come to fruition until decades of suffragists endured beatings, prison and forced feeding to bring half the country the vote), and others struggling for equal rights from Sojourner Truth up to my friends working for marriage equality. Each of us does our part to help this country truly provide liberty and justice for all.