Burning Sulfur and Freedom…Jogging the Senses

I was sitting close, perhaps too close, to our town’s dazzling fireworks display. In years past I would wince as the pungent clouds of smoke drifted our way. Not this year- my stinging eyes yielded a different perception to the evening. Light tracks made an impression on my eyes and huge popping “boomers” shook my innards, but the freedom I so strangely associated with the smell of rotting eggs really caught me. The burned sulfur hanging in the air smelled like democracy, like freedom, like the great heritage of our nation. It was an aroma that I will never forget. It smelled American.

The United States is greatly blessed that we, for the most part, can associate burning sulfur with the joys of freedom and liberty. Countries like Israel do not that that privilege. It appears as if the United States was spared the violence of mass terrorism yesterday, but the battle to preserve our freedoms has only just begun. It is my hope and prayer that our country will continue to prevent future acts of terror by primarily, trusting in the strength of God for our safety, and secondly, use of the Rumfeldistic term “precipitory self-defense”.

The physical acquaintances of our senses grab us in ways we least expect. Last Independence Day the United States was blissfully trotting along in the show arena of History. The events of late last year challenged and changed our daily walk of life. It is after Thursday’s celebrations that our call to citizenship can renewed by a red white and blue shot in the arm.

Funny how a terrible smell can bring a person to one’s senses.

Stephen A. McDonald Bigtreenews.com