For many reasons, this holiday actually seems quite real this year. While I’m not able to fly a flag (we live in an apartment), I do feel differently about the liberties (large and small) that exist in this country. My grandmother, who came here in 1914 and recently passed away, witnessed the first World War, the swinging 20s, the Depression, radio, the second World War, Hiroshima and nuclear mayhem, television, JFK and MLK’s murders, yippies, Julian Schnabel, the PC, the Internet, and the birth of two great-grandchildren.
What do I have to show for all that? The fact that I am sitting here typing words on a computer instead of growing potatoes in radiation-filled Zhitomir, Ukraine. The enormity of this good fortune, thanks to her and to those who helped her here, is overwhelming.