The True Meaning of Independence Day Freedom Writers

The upcoming holiday reminded me, that for as long as I can remember, my father, a well-respected teacher and administrator taught me about certain “inalienable rights” and “freedoms.”

My dad served in the Korean war and found that our “freedoms” were a very important thing to him and to pass on their importance to future generations. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of reasonable expression and freedom of independent thought to name a few.

Freedom of independent thought, the ability to “think outside the box,” seemed extremely important to him and to my development as a free thinking adult. The ability to view the world and beyond with open eyes, to question the norm, to think past what we have been told, to challenge the status quo. It is what many great leaders, great philosophers and great comedians have done for eons.

It is the ability to ask out loud in a strong clear voice things like...

“Should  people on a diet eating a salad for lunch, use a dressing called 660 Islands?”

“Do you ever think that crop circles in the midwest are put there by God placing his coffee mug down there for a short time when no one is looking?"

“If as a child, the main candy you ate was a lot of dum-dum lollipops. Could you reverse the lasting effects by now eating candy called smarties?"

“If you added a new language comprehension app on your 4G cell, could you now refer to that as the Rosetta Phone?"

“Is you-tubing the Aflac Duck commercials considered Bird Watching?"

“Is it okay to take up a collection at your local sports bar to buy Lebron James a cell phone so he can finally get a ring?"

My thanks to our “Founding Fathers," who, over  2 centuries prior, got together and set down the policies in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, which we choose to celebrate this time of the year with illegal explosives in our state and very loud patriotic and Disney-inspired music which allows me the rights of “freedom of independent thought" and “freedom of the press” to the constant chagrin of my editor, to express the unsubstantiated views of historic icons such as Benjamin Franklin.

It is Mr. Franklin, who is honored on the 100 dollar bill, but never became President or even enter formal politics (Politics from the Latin, poly meaning “many” and tics meaning “blood sucking creatures.”) neverless discovered that electricity is just organized lightning. Mr. Franklin once wrote, ”There are things that money cannot buy...debt is one of those!”

So let me seriously ask you this...Nassau County Executive- Ed (no Groupon here) Mangano who just laid off 128 union workers this summer as the only option to not raising our East Meadow taxes, but wants to borrow over $400 million dollars to build a new Nassau Coliseum, which would add $58 to your EM taxes each year for the next 30 years.  Isn’t that  the equivalent to wearing sandals in the in the winter because you can’t afford boots or shoes AND then buying a belt for your pants for $600?" You tell me! I think my dad would be proud of me right now.