In Life There's The Good And The Bad

As the United States of America marks another birthday, some might wonder what there is to celebrate about.

Gas prices are at an all-time high. So are food prices, and prices of everything else.

Monthly home mortgage payments are becoming impossible for many who have not lost their homes to foreclosure.

The dollar has been declining steadily for six years against other major currencies, undercutting its role as the leading international banking currency.

The war is Iraq is going nowhere and U.S. influence in the world is not something to brag about... The litany of complaints can go on and on.

Agreed, things in the United States are bad right now and they might be for some time.

But all said and done, the Unites States is still a great place that lives by the values that created it: equal opportunity, enterprise and free thought. No economic downturn can take these rights away from Americans.

Some things are priceless, it's said, and Americans shouldn't forget that.

Americans may not be able to afford that three-day weekend getaway like in the past but they still have the right to vote, to speak, to practice a religion of their choice or not. They can still criticize their government, impeach their president and tell their political representatives what to do.

In many parts of the word, that's impossible, if not unheard of.

In these bleak days we can't forget that tough times come. Tough times also go and tough times make the tough tougher.

So for all those who had a morose Fourth of July, remember that the tide will turn, like all economic cycles do, and remember to cast that vote in November.