Fireworks, Revelry Mark Independence Day
Americans Celebrate July 4th With Mix Of Patriotism And Fun
-
-
Photo
Fireworks light up the sky over the National Mall in Washington Friday, July 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
-
Photo
Dressed as the Statue of Liberty, a participant in the Key Biscayne, Fla., July Fourth parade rides on a float on Friday, July 4, 2008 in Key Biscayne. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
-
Photo
Kent Gregory, of the Sons of the American Revolution, puts bunting on a Model A Ford before the annual Fourth of July parade in Huntington Beach, Calif., Friday, July 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Mark Avery)
-
Photo
Cindy Arthur of Nampa, Idaho dressed as the Statue of Liberty rides the Cheer Force All Stars float Friday morning July 4, 2008 during the Caldwell, Idaho Independence Day Parade. (AP Photo/The Idaho Press-Tribune, Mike Vogt) ()
-
Photo
Hundreds of people turned out to watch the annual Fourth of July parade make its way down the main street of Capitan, N.M., on Friday, July 4, 2008. Communities around New Mexico celebrated the holiday with parades and fireworks shows. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)
-
-
Photo Essay
The Big Bangs
The most spectacular Fourth of July fireworks from coast to coast.
On the 232nd anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Boy Scouts in Hartford, Conn., rang a replica of the Liberty Bell, while organizers of the annual New York fireworks display promised the rockets' red glare would be better than ever.
Near Kissimmee, Fla., a wounded bald eagle, the national bird, was flying free after spending more than two months rehabilitating from a fight with another eagle. It was freed Thursday in Lake Tohopekaliga, the heart of Florida's eagle country.
In Boston, the 211-year-old USS Constitution, the Navy's oldest commissioned warship, was the backdrop Friday morning as two dozen people were sworn in as U.S. citizens.
Vice President Dick Cheney greeted the new Americans and later, in a second ceremony, administered the re-enlistment oath to a group of servicemen.
The Hartford ceremony was among several similar events being held across the country Friday by a group known as Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Thirteen peals, one for each of the original colonies, rang out from a replica Liberty Bell at the State Capitol.
Some locales, including Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, started the holiday weekend early, with fireworks displays on Thursday night. In Monticello, Ill., authorities said nine people were treated for ringing in the ears or other minor injuries Thursday after two stray shells from a fireworks display landed in a crowd.
North Carolina's two major military bases planned big events to honor troops. Country star Wynonna Judd was to perform at Fort Bragg, and the Marines were hosting her contemporary Lee Ann Womack at Camp Lejeune.
The severity of a nearby wildfire prompted the cancellation of a fireworks display in Santa Barbara County, Calif. Communities across the parched state called off similar events because of fears that they could start fires.
A daredevil planned to walk 2,000 feet across a cable suspended high off the ground in a Cincinnati-area amusement park Friday night. Rick Wallenda is the grandson of Karl Wallenda, patriarch of the "Flying Wallendas" high-wire act, who fell to his death trying to walk a cable in Puerto Rico in 1974.
After dark, more than 3 million people were expected to attend the nation's largest fireworks display along New York's East River, moved south this year so onlookers would get a better view of the city skyline.
Organizers said this year's show, broadcast on NBC, will include new nautical fireworks that float on the water. Other new shells will go through multiple transformations after they launch, providing four different effects.
And it wouldn't be July Fourth without the annual hot dog eating competition at Coney Island in New York. This year was another heartbreaker for longtime champion Takeru Kobayashi of Nagano, Japan.
He was trying to reclaim his title after a disappointing three-dog loss last year to Californian Joey Chestnut shattered his six-year winning streak. But it was not to be: Chestnut made it two wins in a row, beating Kobayashi in a tiebreaker.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Video and Galleries from U.S.
-
Video
Kidney Transplant Chain
-
Video
Taxing The Rich
-
Video
Cash For Clunkers
When he 14 he was appointed Congressional diplomatic ambassador to The Court of Catherine the Great of Russia! He served also as foreign ambassador, Secretary of state, U.S. representative, senator and of course President!
SPEECH BY JOHN QUINCY ADAMS July 4, 1837
%u201CWhy is it that, next to the birth day of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day.%u201D The fourth of July.
%u201CIs it not that, in the chain of human events, the birth-day of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birth-day of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer%u2019s mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?%u201D
John Quincy Adams said the biggest victory won in the revolution was that Christian Principles and Civil government would be tied together in an indissolubly bond!
How''s Bush doing at this principle?
=====
But (America) goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit....
-- John Quincy Adams
I only wish that I could have been blessed with the privledge of being born there.I ask all Americans to please never,ever take your US Citizenship for granted and always be very proud to be an American.
Yes you are going through some very diffucult economic times right now and many of your Citizens are hurting,but you are a strong nation and can weather any and all adveristy thrown at you.I still have faith that you will come back as strong as ever.
May you remain a great nation,today and 2 Centuries from now.I will love you always
Signed
One your many Canadian friends.
The Adams and the Bush''s are the only father Son duo
- We are DEPENDENT on foreign oil. No matter how much oil we *attempt* to drill in our own country, the vast majority will still have to come from other countries, Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, etc.
- We are DEPENDENT on foreign manufacturing for even the most basic necessities of living. Even our military is dependent on foreign manufacturing for some components.
- The typical "American Dream" is DEPENDENT on cheap gas in order to maintain the lifestyles the middle class once enjoyed in this country.
But mostly, this country (our government) is extremely DEPENDENT on foreign countries floating our debt so our government can create needless wars-for-profit and other wasteful spending!
This is what we get when Americans chose the corrupt two-party system, (some more corrupt than others), time and time again.
So with that being said...
HAPPY DEPENDENTS DAY!
I hope everyone enjoyed some fireworks shows!
(Dependent on fireworks imported from China)
One your many Canadian friends.
Posted by ratchow1962 at 12:12 AM : Jul 05, 2008
Neighbors like you are what we need at all times, what a nice thing to say, and the feeling is mutual about our lovely and loyal Canadians.Thank you so much at a low time in our history it is good to know someone cares for us.Thanks again
-- John Quincy Adams
Posted by occams_taser
I enjoyed reading John Quincy Adams quote. Thanks this I assume was in the 18th century, and our present leader broke all these rules, and look where we are. I know the spirit of our people is not broke, and we will overcome this, and lest we forget, we take care of each other,let us join hands, and be strong for each other, we have to build our country back to its proper place.
Neighbors like you are what we need at all times, what a nice thing to say, and the feeling is mutual about our lovely and loyal Canadians.Thank you so much at a low time in our history it is good to know someone cares for us.Thanks again
Posted by starleo14672 at 09:33 AM : Jul 05, 2008
I 2nd that, maybe Ersmasus81 needs to read what ratchow wrote. She seems to be hating us for one reason or another.
When he 14 he was appointed Congressional diplomatic ambassador to The Court of Catherine the Great of Russia! He served also as foreign ambassador, Secretary of state, U.S. representative, senator and of course President!
SPEECH BY JOHN QUINCY ADAMS July 4, 1837
%u201CWhy is it that, next to the birth day of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day.%u201D The fourth of July.
%u201CIs it not that, in the chain of human events, the birth-day of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birth-day of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer%u2019s mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?%u201D
John Quincy Adams said the biggest victory won in the revolution was that Christian Principles and Civil government would be tied together in an indissolubly bond!
And I am dying?
Who will help me?
I am about 230 years old.
I had been born out of the prayer in men%u2019s hearts who understood what true liberty is.
My name is America and God knows about me, but people do not care about God they have kicked Him out of politics and schools someday they may show Him the door out of the country!
People do not care about me America. There is no more love of being an American!
People are murdering every day in regard to aborted babies and again they do not care of what true liberty is for all!
Hello I am America who will save me! People raise flags in remembrance of me, but who will raise their heart in the principles by which we stand?
Hello I am America and I am crying for the injustice being done in my name. Where O where are the citizens that will fix me? Where are the Americans who will fight for me? What will happen to me? My name is America who will love me?
Place,
We are looking at the statue of liberty? You see she has been wounded and there is no one who can stop her from bleeding? God can you help Miss Liberty from bleeding? The flame that she holds has been put out by people like us who just want what we want? We want the wrong that we do without the consequences? We want to shed the liberty of truth to other lands by our diplomacy but there is no one shedding the liberty to our own that are starving, homeless and dying! Yes Miss Liberty is dying and no one who can stop her from bleeding! Lets help others in strange lands to know we are there but lets not let someone here know that she is here for them!
Miss liberty idea for liberty for all I thought was those who hold the truths of our founding fathers to be self evident a belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ to bring salvation to an individual and a country. Not a butchery of innocent babies who only crime in life is that they exist in the mother%u2019s womb who wants to love and be loved! We do not care for the lives of our men losing their lives in strange lands for a cause few understand there that it is liberty one should choose to guide their cause. Will anyone out there shed a tear for Miss Liberty when she is no more?
of everything.Canada is in the same boat with you
in these diffucult economic times.When I am in the
US though,it feels as if I have come home again
and it hurts deeply when I have to leave.
While other people in the world may spit on you, curse your country,burn your flag,call you the most evil nation on earth.I for one will never desert you
and will always stand by your side in the face of such hatred and animosity.This my eternal pledge to you America.
I leave you with these words of encouragement.
Please do not ever let anyone tell you that
the best days of America are behind her,
that the American spirit has been vanquish,
We all have have seen her triumph much too often
in our lives to stop believing in her now.
Take care my dear American friends.
Maybe, if we wanted a healthier better America we should turn to God to heal our land? Just think? It happened another time in the annuals of history? Yeah God was going to destroy this place called Nineveh and the people repented and God spared them. We could do this in America?
-
by providence_j
July 5, 2008 10:41 AM PDT
- Hello my name is America,
-
Reply to this comment
-
See all 18 CommentsAnd I am dying?
Who will help me?
I am about 230 years old.
I had been born out of the prayer in men%u2019s hearts who understood what true liberty is.
My name is America and God knows about me, but people do not care about God they have kicked Him out of politics and schools someday they may show Him the door out of the country!
People do not care about me America. There is no more love of being an American!
People are murdering every day in regard to aborted babies and again they do not care of what true liberty is for all!
Hello I am America who will save me! People raise flags in remembrance of me, but who will raise their heart in the principles by which we stand?
Hello I am America and I am crying for the injustice being done in my name. Where O where are the citizens that will fix me? Where are the Americans who will fight for me? What will happen to me? My name is America who will love me?