Why should a little rain dampen America’s tradition of celebrating her freedom and independence on the Fourth of July?
As Hurricane Arthur was making its way up the East Coast, most people, particularly here in New Hampshire, were wondering just how much rain we would get and whether its timing would affect our holiday plans. And what about the people of North Carolina’s Outer Banks? How were they going to cope this holiday weekend?
Fortunately, the damage was minimal. In fact, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory said as much in published reports following the storm. While there were indeed power outages, heavy rains, and coastal flooding, things were not as bad as they could have been.
According to published reports, Arthur carried 75 m.p.h. winds, technically strong enough to make it a hurricane but weak when compared to other storms in recent memory.
Here in New Hampshire, meanwhile, we were left with steady downpours pretty much the entire day on July 4.
In no way did the storm hamper our ability to celebrate what we hold dear.
An article in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal described how Outer Banks homeowners hung red, white, and blue bunting from their houses, and rescue crews hung the American flag from their trucks. If that image is not touching, then what is?
Here, we likely closely followed the forecast, wondering what we should do. As we saw the rain was going to linger around the whole day, most of us likely adjusted, rather than cancelled, our plans, determined not to let rain interfere with celebrations we had been eagerly anticipating for some time.
Perhaps our barbecues still carried on as scheduled, but we just ate indoors. Or we managed to wear a raincoat while we grilled outside. Some of us may have simply made other plans.
Fireworks were originally scheduled for July 4 in Derry, but they were postponed to the following day – demonstrating prudence and common sense.
The Fourth of July is a day to celebrate Americanism-what makes the U.S. the great country that it is. Nothing should ever interfere with our ability, and our right, to do that.
It was only rain. Why should a downpour get in the way of celebrations and visits with family and friends?
Arthur was a storm that drenched us with rain. America is a country drenched with a spirit of independence and freedom.