*Fire Ninja*

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th weekend. I traveled a few times to Grand Forks last week and yesterday I was in Cooperstown, ND. With the 4th passing us by I have been thinking about what Freedom really means to me and again if you are reading this it is only my opinion.

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In the United States we are Free and again I love living in this country as the world seems pretty harsh in other countries, however I think being Free means a lot of different things to different people. I will start with freedom of speech, hmmmmm well what if we actually said what we felt??? I see a lot of posts on Social Media which is supposed to be a place where you can go and give your opinion on a lot of matters, but if you do this just remember you are going to have backlash no matter what side you are on. I tend to not post a lot of opinions because there is a lot of haters out there and it isn’t worth my time to go back and forth with them. I think we should be able to have our own opinion without others putting us down as we should be able to live in peace, of course all opinions matter and difference of opinion is accepted but not when it gets out of control with hateful words. So how Free do you feel about voicing how you feel? Do you put it all out there on Facebook or Twitter?

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The most recent debate is the right of the gay community to marry which really makes me wonder if we are so FREE in this country than why is there a problem with this? Everyone should be able to be married to the person they LOVE. Isn’t that what it is all about is to LOVE and be LOVED and for anyone to judge this is very interesting to me. I see a lot of individuals with such strong opinions against gay marriage, however if these individuals get married how does it actually affect you? What if someday your child is born gay and wants to get married what would you say “No” or would you love them no matter what? Every human being deserves to be loved no matter race, religion, sexual orientation, and etc… Who are we to judge? I try to instill this in my daughter all the time that these things do not matter as what matters is to love everyone for who they are on the inside with all of your heart. The other day she asked me “Mom can a girl marry a girl and a boy marry a boy?” and I couldn’t lie to her so I sat down and explained it all the best way I knew how and I hope as she gets older this whole subject will be in the past. I just saw in the news that there is a bakery that is refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay marriage, I mean really come on that is just awful. There are people even in our state that are trying to protest this ruling and I am sorry but if you have that much time on your hands then why not help or volunteer with the women’s shelter or the homeless as that is where our focus should be is on other huge issues.

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Somedays I feel our country is going backwards which is so unfortunate for all of us as there is more crime and hurtful situations happening everyday. Now look at race, I think things are getting out of hand when it comes to this issue on all sides of the story. I am pretty sure Martin Luther King is looking down shaking his head at all the issues that still arise regarding race. I feel so bad because he worked so hard along with a lot of other individuals to make this not an issue. I was so excited when I saw that Misty Copeland (Read Article) was made the first woman, African American principal dancer for American Ballet Theatre in the company’s 75 year history. They call her a trailblazer among other African American women in ballet history but why at this point are there still trailblazers at all? I was also recently reading a story on a Native American actress, Misty Upham (Read Article), who finally after a ton of hard work made it to the big screen (August: Osage County-Great Movie) but then was tragically killed. Her family was treated so horribly and wether is was a race issue or just horrible human beings, you can decide for yourself. Do these individuals feel FREE in this country?????

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I could go on and on about this topic as I didn’t even scratch Women’s Rights and maybe that is another post. I love this country and for all that it stands for but it is our job as citizens to make it a place where people want to be, a place where everyone has an opportunity to be who they are. We have many men and women who fight for this country on a daily basis so it can stay a FREE land and I think it is up to us back on our soil to make the peace and give love. I didn’t right this post to try and change anyone’s mind if you have a different point of view but maybe I was able to at least make you think. I always challenge myself to see others viewpoints and we can always agree to disagree. The moral of this story is that you can do and become anything if you put your mind to it as this is a FREE country.

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Music during my trips was Halestorm as they have a powerful message and there is a concert being played at the Red River Valley Fair coming up this Saturday which I am very ecstatic for as I have seen them perform once already and it is going to be an awesome show. Take a listen to a few of my favorites and enjoy!:)

Dear Daughter
Hold your head up high
There’s a world outside
That’s passing by
Dear Daughter
Never lose yourself
Remember that
You’re like nobody else

I hate it when you see me cry
Your t-shirt soaked through from my eyes
When I’m not as tough as I should be
And you see the softest part of me