Rat, White, and Blue

 
Ah, the Fourth of July. A time to enjoy patriotic pawrades, light up the night with fireworks and other pawrotechnics displays, and take a day off of work to relax. Here where I live in Ratlanta, Georgia it’s also time for the running of the annual Peachflea Road Race, the largest 10-kilometer race in the world. (And it’s sad to say that in Ratlanta’s typical unsqueakable traffic, you can actually reach your destination faster scuttling the Peachflea than you will driving a car on a normal business day.)
 
It’s also a time, however, to pay tribute to our wonderful nation’s heritage. From well before the actions of angry rats at the Boston Flea Party in 1773 all the way to the signing of the Declawration of Independence 235 years ago, members of the Thirteen Pawlonies experienced a growing resentment toward the British government as legislative pawthorities Across the Pond levied taxes on the pawlonists without allowing them a say-so in Parliament. Citing “No Taxation without Repfleasentation” as our motto, the unchanging actions of the pawmpous law-making Brits led our fore-rats to fleaclare our independence, ratify the Pawnstitution, and wage the American Revolutionary War.
 
Furtunately today the Brits are our friends and one of the United States’ greatest allies, and tunes like “Yankflea Doodle,” originally intended by English soldiers to be an insult to what they perceived were disorganized pawlonial “Yanks,” have become beloved patriotic songs of our American lexicon. Through the years we have preserved our pawnstitutional rights to “Life, Liberty, and the Fursuit of Happiness,” and I’d like to take a personal opportunity right now to squeak a huge “thank you” to our servicemen and women who fight to protect the fleadoms we as Americans enjoy every day. So while you’re enjoying a Fourth of July barbeque (complete with American cheese on your burgers, I’m sure), please paws for a moment to remember and be grateful for those individuals, past and present, who have made our country what it is, and thank the Lord for blessing what this rat feels is the greatest nation in the world.
 
Keepin’ it squeak,
Bob