![\"Fourth](\"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Fourth-of-July-Poem.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nToo often I take for granted how #blessed I am to be an American, to live in a country that stands for freedom of choice and freedom of religion. It\u2019s so easy when you have those freedoms as part of your normal daily life to forget how truly lucky and blessed you are. That\u2019s why I love the Fourth of July holiday because it helps to remind me of just how grateful I truly am.<\/p>\n
As a little girl growing up we started every morning at elementary school reciting the Pledge of Allegiance which goes:<\/p>\n
I pledge Allegiance to the flag<\/p>\n
of the United States of America<\/p>\n
and to the Republic for which it stands,<\/p>\n
one nation under God, indivisible,<\/p>\n
with Liberty and Justice for all.<\/p>\n
I wish we still said the pledge every day in our schools, and Universities, and places of business. It is such a great reminder to be grateful for this nation and to pay tribute to the fact that we became this great nation under God and his divine direction.<\/p>\n
In the words of the Lee Greenwood song, \u201cProud to be an American\u201d I want to close with the words:<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free. And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today. \u2018Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n ~Amy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This weekend we head into the Fourth of July holiday here in the United States and as we do I want to proudly and gratefully say that I am an American. Too often I take for granted how #blessed I am to be an American, to live in a country that stands for freedom of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6683,37,6684,501,500,550,1441,1220,6689,1417,51,4473,1099,1404,5918,29,244,65,237,3266,6687,6688,6692,1098,420,1091,6691,6686,723,3383,6685,6693,490,1932,5519,2662,6690,1095,3356],"class_list":["post-5747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-4th-of-july","tag-america","tag-american","tag-appreciate","tag-appreciation","tag-blessed","tag-country","tag-defend","tag-defend-freedom","tag-divine","tag-family","tag-fireworks","tag-flag","tag-fourth-of-july","tag-free","tag-god","tag-grateful","tag-gratitude","tag-holiday","tag-justice","tag-justice-for-all","tag-lee-greenwood","tag-let-freedom-ring","tag-liberty","tag-lucky","tag-military","tag-pay-tribute","tag-pledge-of-allegiance","tag-pride","tag-proud","tag-proud-to-be-an-american","tag-recite-the-pledge-of-allegiance","tag-reminder","tag-school","tag-soldier","tag-tribute","tag-under-god","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-utah-state-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5747"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5752,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5747\/revisions\/5752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}