Saturday, July 4, 2026
On Our 250th: 101 Reasons To LOVE America!
And is it OK to proclaim it -- to show it and shout it out, loud and clear?
Sometimes -- especially now, on our 250th -- you have to wonder.Of course, the media, the intelligentsia, the popular culture and the dreary liberals who apparently dominant those and other groups have been having a field day downing America -- overlooking its pluses and magnifying its very few minuses. And too many people are buying this nonsense -- especially miserable Democrats, liberals, socialists and the like.
If these people had their way, we'd erase America's largely admirable history; snuff out America's glorious triumphs; dismiss America's generous heart; ignore the will of ordinary, everyday Americans and pretty much outlaw old-fashioned patriotism.
But so much for all that. This is a day for celebration and we're here to uphold America; to herald it; to joyously bask in its riches; to celebrate it and to shout as loud as we can: "Happy Birthday, America! We LOVE you!"
So, in that spirit (but in no particular order) here is our own rather subjective list of 101 reasons to love America.
You can feel free to add or subtract from this list or create your own list -- maybe you'll even come up with 250 reasons. America gives you the freedom to do that -- and a lot more:
1) Our Constitution. The thread that holds us together and the bulwark of democracy.
2) Our federal system of 50 states, each distinctive, each free and independent but united as well. Remember: we are a republic. And thank goodness this was all just reaffirmed in several landmark decisions by our wonderful Supreme Court.
3) The Liberty Bell. Forever flawed though nonetheless inspiring and eternal.
4) The Founding Fathers and what they wrought. They risked their lives, property, fortunes and sacred honor. They weren't perfect, nor were the documents they crafted, but the principles they espoused remain a model for the world.
5) American summers, for summer is surely America's season.
6) Old glory, our flag -- proud, bright, brash and always flying high.
7) In God We Trust. Our enduring faith in Him and His destiny for us. Never, ever abandon or dishonor it. And, now -- celebrate the right to pray in public and to uphold your religious beliefs.
8) Baseball -- despite MLB and those who think they own the game, baseball belongs to everyone. While football may be America's sport, baseball remains its pastime. There is a difference.
9) The 4th of July. Our birthday and our touchstone. Never let others diminish or dishonor it.
10) Free elections. The right to choose the leaders that we want. Fight to keep them fair, verifiable and honest -- especially right now. This cherished right helps to secure all others.
11) Jazz. America's unique musical art form.
12) Those who served. Our veterans, protectors of our freedom.
13) The American Red Cross. There when we need them. And the Salvation Army, too!
14) Our free enterprise system. A model for the entire world.
15) Country music. The hip-slapping spirit of America.
16) Our glorious history -- a story that needs to be fully and fairly told with honesty and pride.
17) The Statue of Liberty. May her torch always be held high.
18) The White House. Remember -- it belongs to all of us! And let's put somebody in that house who's capable of actually leading -- with clarity, integrity, fortitude and common sense.
19) Our military --every branch and everyone who serves. Keep it focused on its core mission: to defend us fervently. Protect it from woke distractions.
20) The Grand Canyon. In a word, breathtaking. Keep it open and welcoming for everyone.
21) The great American novel. From the great white whale to The Great Gatsby, keep spinnin' those tales!
22) Freedom to worship, Our many houses of faith all across the land.
23) The Interstate Highway System. Thank you, President Eisenhower.
24) Our first responders, brave and steadfast.
25) Small towns. Where America's heart beats true.
26) Television. Yes, old-fashioned TV. For better or worse, it still reflects us and epitomizes the popular culture.
27) Our farmers. Keeping the agrarian spirit alive and the horn of plenty full -- especially across the Midwest and the Great Plains!
28) Broadway. The Great White Way, and all that it represents and all the razzle dazzle that surrounds it.
29) American cars (and our love affair with the car). The US auto industry is a vital pillar of our economy and a nurturer of our restless spirit -- and that includes those beloved gas-powered cars, too!
30) Cookouts and picnics. Munching under the sky with family and friends.
31) Las Vegas. Vegas, baby, Vegas!
32) Thanksgiving. A uniquely American holiday, the lead up to Christmas and the kickoff of our buying season.
33) The Rocky Mountains. America's sturdy backbone.
34) Neighbors and neighborhoods. Our real time, real people link in a high-tech age.
35) Our national park system. Even with those pesky rangers, it's a joy.
36) Our two-party system. It’s seen better times but it's still better than a lot of alternatives, so long as we fight for fair elections.
37) Apple pie. Yummy, yummy!
38) Gospel music. Expressing faith, love, joy and anguish.
39) The Gateway Arch. A soaring, inspiring welcome to America's frontier.
40) Cowboys. The enduring source of our wanderlust.
41) Elvis Presley. The King is on the premises, now and forever.
42) Roadside America. Every diner, dive and roadside attraction everywhere.
43) Flowering gardens. Roses and marigolds and azaleas and magnolias and all those other beautiful flowers and all the people who help make them bloom.
44) Our volunteer spirit -- from Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys right up to the present day.
45) Those who gave their all. All those who died protecting our freedoms, many buried on foreign soil. And all POWs and MIAs. We shall never forget.
46) A free press. We love them. We hate them. We curse them. We praise them. But most of all, we pray that most of them find their way back to objectivity.
47) The blues. Sad, sultry, soulful.
48) Andy Warhol. He made the ordinary extraordinary and made us look anew at modern art.
49) Dunkin Donuts. It's true: America runs on Dunkin!
50) New York. In more ways than one, the world's most exciting city. Let's hope it finds its way back -- and with those who lead with common sense.
51) Big Sur, Malibu, Monterey and the entire California coast, from top to bottom as well as all other enchanting seacoasts, including you, New Jersey!
52) Free public libraries. Let a million voices (and authors) be heard and keep them open to all and free of propaganda.
53) Our system of higher education -- especially our great public universities. Let's clean them up, clear them out and rid them of indoctrination and bias.
54) The legacy of Norman Rockwell. The man who showed us the best in ourselves.
55) Texas. Big. Bold. Proud. American.
56) Ferris wheels. From the 1893 Chicago World's Fair till now, still enchanting. And merry-go-rounds and roller coasters, too.
57) The Kentucky Derby. The legendary run for the roses.
58) Mount Rushmore. Our history wrought mammoth. And let's not change a thing about it.
59) The Smithsonian. Endlessly fascinating and still free.
60) NASA. To the moon and beyond -- with newer, bigger adventures ahead.
61) The Super Bowl. A bowl full of partying in an otherwise dull month.
62) The South. Lush land of tall tales, spirited music, colorful characters and fiery history.
63) Hot dogs. Plump, juicy and smothered with your choice of dressings, garnishes, condiments, whatever . . .
64) Home sweet home. The house you live it; your land, your property, your domicile and your right to treasure it and protect it.
65) The Great Lakes. Can you name all five of them?
66) Grandma Moses. The modern-day mother of self-taught American art.
67) Marilyn Monroe. Defying convention, she made America sexy once and for all.
68) The Mississippi. Mighty from top to bottom and everywhere in between.
69) The Indy 500. Vrrroooomm, vrrrrroooomm!
70) The great wits. From Mark Twain to Will Rogers to Dorothy Parker to Art Buchwald to Erma Bombeck to P. J. O'Rourke to Gutfeld.
71) The heartland. From Ohio to Iowa, where ordinary, everyday America thrives.
72) Blue jeans. On the farm, in the city and everywhere else.
73) "God Bless America." The people's anthem that Irving Berlin wrote just for us and the song that Kate Smith immortalized. Shame on Philly's Flyers for banishing her!
74) Independence Hall. Where it all began.
75) The Lincoln Memorial and the man it celebrates. The ultimate monument to the single most compelling figure in American history.
76) Rock 'n roll (aka rock). Rhythm 'n blues, jazz, honkey talk, soul, gospel -- all rolled into one.
77) The West. Where our restless spirit was born.
78) Sneakers. From PF Flyers, Keds and Chuck Taylor Converse to a $13 billion a year industry, we love 'em.
79) Dr. King and his revered legacy: peace, freedom, justice!
80) Barbecue. Beef or pork, wet or dry, hot or sweet, it's America.
81) The Washington Monument. The highest point in the capital and a fitting tribute to the father of our country.
82) Alaska and Hawaii. Our exotic and adventurous extremes.
83) Uncle Sam. When he calls, be sure to answer.
84) The Stars and Stripes Forever, and all of those great Sousa marches and their Sousa bands.
85) Native Americans. Our true heritage rests with them.
86) American architecture. Art that we live in, work in, play in; a living lesson in constructed beauty with skylines that soar.
87) Walt Whitman. "I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear . . . "
89) Motown. The irrepressible sound of a lively, searching soul.
90) New Orleans. A sassy, saucy, scintillating survivor.
91) Rugged individualists, gadflies, iconoclasts, muckrakers, mavericks and all those who afflict the powerful. Charge onward!
92) Harley Davidson. Still the king of the road.
93) Geeks. The tinkerers, problem solvers and dreamers.
94) Comics and comic books. From zany dimwits and lovable losers to iconic super heroes.
95) Truckers and truck stops. Keep on Rollin!
96) New England. Lobster, chowder, rugged seacoasts and cherished traditions.
97) Scientific pioneers. The searchers, the discoverers, the trailblazers and all those who make the breakthroughs that enrich and lengthen our lives.
98) American fashion. From Ralph and Tommy to Donna and Vera. From Seventh Avenue to the world.
99) New Jersey. The distinctive state that gave us Sinatra and The Boss and taught us all how to be wise guys.
100) Willie Nelson. Is there anyone he hasn't sung with or any genre of music he hasn't yet recorded?
101) The American Dream. A better life for our children and our children's children. Always, our best days lie ahead.
101 Reasons to Love America copyright 2012, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 by Dan Cirucci.
Friday, July 3, 2026
Read It, Recite It, Share It With Others!
The unanimous declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature; a right inestimable to them and fromidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;
For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states;
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;
For imposing taxes on us without our consent;
For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury;
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses;
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies;
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments;
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress, in the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, aquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
Thursday, July 2, 2026
The Color Of Her Eyes? Absolutely Breathtaking!
She really was the most beautiful movie star ever. But during her brief career (before she gave it all up to live a private life) very few color photographs of her were taken. That was because all of Garbo's movies were in black-and-white, which was then the norm.
But we do have some color photographs of Garbo (including a later in life passport photo) and they reveal her luminescent hazel/violet eyes -- absolutely beguiling! Small wonder the actress Melina Mercouri once said that when she met Garbo and gazed into her eyes, it took her breath away.
Note: these photos are not colorized. They're genuine. Enjoy!
Exactly What IS Going On Here, Huh?
Pride month may have (mercifully) ended but we're still left to wonder about this display at the entrance to the children's section of the Camden County (NJ) Library. It remained up throughout the month at the library's main branch in Vorhees and this is at least the second year we've encountered it. Similar displays were the norm at many area libraries -- some of which have no such displays or recognition of America's 250th birthday this month.
Take a look at the titles of some of the books -- all placed conveniently at eye level for children. It does give one pause, and might make one wonder exactly what's at play here -- information, or vigorous advocacy, if not outright grooming.
Just something to think about -- especially if you're a parent of grandparent.
Wednesday, July 1, 2026
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