America, the Beautiful. Still.

Happy birthday, America the beautiful. And the beleaguered, and the tested, and the under-appreciated. A dream come true, built on the hopes and prayers and vision of people who had been beleaguered and tested themselves.

America has meant different things to different people. For some, it is home, a safe haven to nestle into while going about the business of living, working and raising a family. For others, it is a place where finally, their family can have enough to eat. For still others, it is a destination to aspire to, worth risk and hardship and pain.

We are a young nation, full of the bravado and invincibility that accompanies youth. We have enjoyed our strength, our beauty, our confidence, our success. We have been willing to work together, fight side by side, and make the sacrifices necessary to assure our nation's continued existence.

But now, a new threat to our homeland has gone from festering beneath the surface to erupting into a painful, open and frightening wound. A man is at the helm who does not value our lifestyle, our past, our sacrifices, our opinions. His is an agenda that mocks what this country was created to represent and who those are who gave everything to see its birth.

Barry Soetoro, aka Barack Obama, the commander in chief of our troops, refuses to salute the troops, observe national holidays, display our flag on the same podium as he appears on, bows to the leaders of other nations, and forbids military jets to be flown in honor of national celebrations, the first president to do so.

I read in our local paper today that the lead up to this 4th of July was the least eventful and celebratory than ever before. I heard on the radio news that many towns and cities have cancelled their fireworks displays due to finances and lack of interest. We should not be surprised by this.

The effect of management attitude and policy in any business reverberates to the lowest employee level. The family reflects the acts and attitude of the parent. The classroom succeeds or fails with the teacher.

We have a selfish, unpatriotic, poorly trained, untested, smug, don't-give-a-damn political knick-knack in the President's office. He is systematically 'dissing' and destroying all that is uniquely American to those of us who know her best.

When my uber-liberal friends and coworkers brayed his qualifications for office, my constant response was 'Based on what?' What act, position, qualification, past effort or success made Barry Soetoro qualified to: a) be president, or b) make the promises he made during the election, or c) be trusted to provide change or hope? Answer: nothing. No thing.

I miss having a president I trust to love this country, and not sell us out to those who would destroy us or make us unrecognizable as a great and rich country. America is not perfect; we have faults and things we should change, absolutely. But we are pretty damn good, and no pretender to the throne has the right to embarrass, shame, ignore, or abuse our America or our Americanness. We don't even put up with that from entertainers. We need to give Barry/Barack the Dixie Chick treatment.