65 Million Americans Are Not Having a Happy July 4th
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/65-million-americans-are-not-having-happy-july-4th
Over sixty five million people in the US, perhaps a fifth of our sisters and brothers, are not enjoying the “unalienable rights” of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” promised when the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776. They are about twenty percent of our US population. This July 4 can be an opportunity to remember them and rededicate ourselves and our country to making these promises real for all people in the US.
More than two million people are in our jails and prisons making the US the world leader in incarceration, according to the Sentencing Project, a 500% increase in the last 30 years.
Four million more people are on probation and parole, reports the US Bureau of Justice Statistics.
On the night of July 4 and on any given night, over 600,000 people are homeless, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, a quarter of which, over 130,000, are children.
Over 4 million people live in homes where each person lives on less than $2 per day (2.8 million are children) according to the National Poverty Center of the University of Michigan. Over 20 million people are living in deep poverty with incomes of less than 50 percent of the already low US poverty lines.
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/11702331
http://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp
There is more on the link.
When my kids were young, we never missed a fireworks display and always had a picnic with family. Now, we spend the 4th in our own home, because it's too hot for us outside. We have our picnic inside and watch the fireworks on TV and mill around the house or our garden. I have a crop of jalapenos I need to harvest out there, so I might fix some nachos to spice the afternoon up. If you can't be with family, call them up. Pull out your photo album or the photo file on your computer and look at your photos from England. Go rent a movie at the movie kiosk in your neighborhood.
Try to count your blessings. I will be thinking of you, for whatever that's worth. 
"1776" was on TCM at 10:30 am. We segued right into 7 part "John Adams" on HBO til 8pm. Bbq'd burgers, cornn & cooked up homemade potato salad (with onions & herbs from our garden). Time out. Macy's fireworks 10:30 - 11. And now listening to David McCollough talk about G Wasington and our improbable birth.
I started watching it during the 2nd part! Well, good. All's well. Later, friend.