FairerScience friend Kate Tilton wrote this and sent it off to me and other friends and family today. It moved me so much, I asked for her permission to post it. Thanks Kate and may you all have a happy, reflective fourth.

Like most of you, I've recently received many "patriotic" email messages, urging me to pass along my allegiance to the flag, my desire for God to bless America; even my body, dressed in red, white or blue, lined up in a field somewhere, becoming an huge human flag. Possibly the most laughable was the diatribe which informed me that there is more than one verse of the National Anthem, and it proves that we are a Christian country. Huh???... I've known that verse for 50 years. It proves nothing but that F.S. Keyes needed to write another verse to a really bad song!

Okay... if that 's your thing, then fine. I do not believe that God blesses America. I tolerate that song only because it's Irving Berlin. I have not pledged Allegiance for... perhaps 20 years?. I'm a patriotic American citizen. I love my country. I wish my country well. I do not need someone else's words to prove that. I will not put on my red shirt and go out and stand in a field somewhere, hoping that a camera from overhead is recording this living flag moment.

I will celebrate Independence Day quietly. I will most certainly help my husband hang our flag. I will probably wear some form of red, white and blue. We will probably grill our dinner, before watching fireworks. I will try not to gag when the music which accompanies those fireworks goes into "Proud to be an Amurrican".

I will, and I hope all thinking Americans will... give some thought to the real intentions of our founding fathers. Most of them were Christian, at least having been baptised such. Most did not often attend church. Most gave lip service to their faith, but did not particularly adhere to it. The Adams' were probably the most devout, and Abigail more than John, I think. Franklin... not devout at all. Washington... lip service. Jefferson... no more devout than Franklin... if UU had existed, he would have been SO There!

We are so NOT a Christian country. We are a melting pot, many faiths, many colors, many beliefs. God... or Allah, or Yahweh... or... whomever... does not bless us, as a country. If we are devout, we may hope to be blessed by our deity. If we are not devout, we should stop asking someone else's God to bless our country. I am always appalled at so many of the emails which I receive.. from friends who never cross a church door step... and who are horrified that "in God we trust" might be taken off our coins.

Let's all grow up. It's our country... it's our job to make it work. God is not going to do it for us. Only our own hard work and attention to our political situation will help us now.

Thank you, Sons of Liberty. Thank you, all of you who suffered in the snow at Valley Forge. Thank you, all you who fell at Gettysburg. Thank you, you who were gassed in France, you who sank with the Arizona, you who planted the flag on Iwo JIma. Thank you Women's libbers... and those who were there at Stonewall... and of course, thank you Dr. King.

Please, in this Independence Day weekend, let us not ever forget that smugness has no place in our national facade. If those who most invoke the almighty choose that path... let them. God/Allah/Jaweh.. etc. knows better. Humility is our better path. We need help. We need the help of our creator. We need the freedom to plead for that help from which ever creator we worship. If they are not all the same, they will work it out somehow.