This years Fourth will be specialHowdy Beaver

This years Fourth will be special

Howdy Beaver

Another Fourth of July is approaching and folks all over this part of our world will be celebrating with picnics, camping trips, hikes, a day on the water (and isn't it good that we have water to be on this year), or wonderful barbecues in the back yard.

This is an especially important July Fourth for our country as it is the first one since the events of Sept. 11. This one is celebrated amid terrible troubles in the Mideast and threats to us here in the United States by people who genuinely wish us harm.

Kind of sad to figure that one out. Harm to the nation that has taken most anyone in who wants to come here? Harm to the nation that is first to help whenever there is flood, famine or fire throughout the world, and often without even being asked? Harm for the country that might be termed a "busybody" country at times but only because it wants others to feel the warm winds of democracy that it feels?

What the terrorists did not count on (and what they still do not have a clue about as they threaten us once again this Fourth of July) is that when something happens in this country, it unites a people who are never united at all about much of anything. Maybe we all didn't even have a clue ourselves about how united we could become.

But whether you are hiking in Glacier next weekend or heading toward Cleveland or picnicking in good old Beaver Creek Park, you will see flags everywhere. They have never been taken down since September. Nor will they be taken down for a long time. We know one restaurant owner who has flown his flag at half staff since Sept. 11. He continues to do so.

Automobiles continue to fly flags in their windows or on their radio antennas. Flags fly in town after town, no matter how large or small, in front of houses and businesses, churches and civic clubs.

And on this particular Fourth of July, we suspect that folks like us will pause more than once during the day and when hearing firecrackers and reassure ourselves that our flag is still flying flying high in midtown New York and on the Great Plains of Montana, flying high over "the land of the free and the home of the brave."

Happy Fourth of July to you and yours.