On this great American holiday, I hope each and every one of you will take time to remember what we are truly celebrating. Forget the great food you are grilling, the beautiful fireworks displays you will see and the candy you collected at the parade and focus on why we celebrate this day.

This is our Independence Day. Since 1776, many men and women have given their lives for our country and the belief that the Founding Fathers founded this country upon.

Sadly today many Americans are too caught up in complaining about high gas prices and the bear market to remember all the freedoms that we have.

We can go to a church of our choice every week--or we can choose not to practice any religion. We can choose to send our children to public or private schools. We can choose where to live, what jobs to have, where to go to college, where to shop and what to do with our free time. We are blessed with whatever goods and services we could imagine or need and most of us have the money to consume those goods and services without worry about finances.

In Novemeber, we will continue to exercise our freedom as we participate in the national election. We can choose to vote or we can not vote. We can study candidates and understand their platforms and use that information to elect a leader for our country. And if that leader turns out to be a poor one, we can present evidence to impeach that leader and replace him. We get to choose a new leader every four years instead of being stuck with a dictator until he dies or is assassinated.

We are truly blessed, for all of these reasons and more. Please take time to count your blessings and appreciate your freedom today. And also take time to be thankful to all the soldiers, both in the country and overseas around the world, who are defending our freedom while we sip on lemonade, enjoy a picnic and sleep in our air conditioned homes every night.

Happy 4th of July!