Dear Kid,

What a wonderful 4th of July weekend.

There was so much going on this weekend—celebrations in different cities with different families of different times in our lives.

Shout out to those at #Kutz50 this weekend–Love you guys! Sorry we couldn’t be with you.

One of these days I will figure out how to clone myself and be all places simultaneously. In the meantime, I’m grateful for Facebook and people who share photos.

Shout out to those at Red, White, and Blue Ash–Thank you for enjoying the evening for us!

Shout out to family gathered in Cleveland–Oh wait. I’m here. No shouting necessary. Yay!

We watched fireworks from the rooftop in Cleveland last night. It was absolutely amazing to see all the fireworks from countless localities all at once. It was a panorama of pretty. A kaleidoscope of kaboom (without most of the noise). Very, very cool.

And just when we thought the show was nearing its end, the City of Cleveland started its fireworks show. Spectacular.

If you don’t mind, I’m going to take a small moment for a Public Service Announcement.

Dear ‘Murica,

No, it’s not better when you take a photo of fireworks using your iphone with the flash on.

No, it’s not better when you hand your nephew a burning sparkler and tell him to stick the end through the chain link fence so he doesn’t get burned.

No, a few more beers does not improve your ability to set off fireworks. Let the professionals do it. You should stick with saying “ooh” and “ahh.”

No, it is not funny to try to convince your dog that fireworks are fun. Let him go inside and cower in the privacy of his own home.

Sorry. Some things just have to be said.

Hope you enjoyed your fireworks show last night and you have a great day today.

Get some sleep, kiddo. Pretty sure you need it.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

There are a lot of things ‘Murica shouldn’t be proud of. Like the term “’Murica”.

We don’t need to be proud of being the leader in obesity and diabetes and back pain and rudeness.

We don’t need to be proud of being right up in the top of the world’s polluters or contributors to global warming.

We should be downright ashamed at the behavior of some of our citizens. Violence and intolerance (even if we’re not world leaders in either) are not things to be proud of.

And there are a number of reality TV shows that we contributed to the world that we should definitely not be proud of.

On the other hand, we have a lot we can be proud of as a country.

We believe in democracy. We believe in freedom. We (generally) believe we have the right to disagree with each other without consequences for our ideology (Note: Except when it comes to cleaning your room in which instance there will be consequences—not for disagreeing, but for not going along with the program.)

We believe in the goodness of moving forward with the times, both in terms of technology and in terms of treating each other well.

We believe in the healing the sick and feeding the hungry (that we don’t agree on the “how” is a different issue).

We believe that everyone has a right to vote for our leaders and that no one voice is better or more important than another (except on America’s Got Talent).

We believe in a meritocracy (most of the time).

We believe in hard work and just rewards.

Basically, we believe in being American. And that is something to be very proud of.

Happy Birthday, ‘Murica.

Love, Mom