OUR NATIONAL HOLIDAY - AT 7:27 A.M. ET:  We enter one of our most important holiday weekends, safe in the knowledge that there are still men and women willing to defend this country, at the risk and cost of their lives, regardless of how little credit their receive. 

Talk-show host Mike Scully asks, "So, how's your fourth going?"  And he reminds us, with the picture below, how theirs is going:

Four Thousand Marines backed by helicopter gunships, push into the Helmand River Valley as part of an operation to take back Southern Afghanistan.

When I was young, and went to see Fourth of July fireworks with my family, my wise mother always reminded me that the sound and flash of those explosives were what American troops faced every day when we were at war...except that the explosives were directed at them.  I've always remembered what my mother taught me.

Have a meaningful Fourth.

July 3, 2009