What independence means to me in our United States of America is I can walk down the street licking my ice cream cone without fear or favor of being ridiculed or molested, at least in the area where I live. In one country where we lived, they told us you could tell Americans, because they walk down the street licking their ice cream cones, while others eat theirs inside the store.

America’s independence means I can sit in church and not have to watch for a mole to rat on us while we are worshipping God — openly. In church, I sit on the right side, in the second row next to the end seat, and I confess to you, should the day come when someone in dark clothes and assault rife bounds through the front doors to take our freedom away, I have a plan … an escape route. However, I have not given it much thought lately, because we are still free.

The meaning of our independence for me is I can sit inside of a vehicle without worrying if someone is going to reach in to grab my purse. In our free, typical American homes, we are taught not to grab or steal.

Independence also meant, when I went to my American Doctors to have my babies, I felt confident he would act in mercy and do all he could to save my life and the babies, instead of [yelling] at me on the delivery table, “Pain woman, women are to have pain!”

Our American Independence means when we go into a foreign country for any length of time, we are to let the U.S. Embassy know we are there, because if there is any trouble, the U.S. is obligated to do all they can to get us out.

USA Independence means I can go to the polls without a soldier standing by with his gun.

It also means, I am privileged to go to any institution of learning of my choice, if I have the money. In one country’s school chapel, the preacher asked the 250 high school students, “How many of you would like to go to heaven?” Hands began to raise one at a time over the sleepy crowd. Then he asked, “How many of you would like to go to America?” Sleep vanished and hands popped up quickly all over the building. To many of that country’s nationals, their dream was the good USA.

USA Independence still recognizes and celebrates Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter … times that resurrect family memories.

Our Independence Day means we are still free to hold guns in our possession, unlike one country we lived in that had gun control. Yet in that country, it was very dangerous; it was only the good guys who didn’t have guns. We had to dodge men with guns pointed at us on our way to town to get supplies. Those who could not buy them, made them.

We are first-hand witnesses of the things you have just read.

Americans fight, suffer untold misery and die for this country’s freedom. We know freedom via our brother’s sweat and blood.

One country had their independence handed over to them from a mother country, without the pain. Some did not know what independence meant and said, “I am going to get a box and go get mine.” They thought independence was something free they could get in a box. I am concerned some in our country have the same idea; it is something free they can get in a container.

In closing, I came face-to-face with what America’s Independence means from a man in the hospital. As a nurse, I had just come on duty and was doing my assessment rounds. I walked into the room of a male patient. As we talked, I noticed he was missing an arm. He began to tell how he lost his arm while serving his country during the war. I stood there looking at the man. Overwhelmed with feelings of sympathy and gratitude, I thought, he did this for me. He literally gave his arm for my freedom. That was a face-to-face moment of reality of what our American Independence means.

Thank God for our American freedom … to have and to hold from this day forward.