All that is left is the clean-up. And, yes, if you set off numerous fireworks in your street, please do clean them up.
That’s right, another Fourth is in the books. It was once again a sky full of colorful lights and lots of noise.
It’s time to mow the smoke bomb colored grass left in the yard. Not to mention all the debris from the firecracker and numerous other shredded fireworks that nestled into the lawn.
It’s time to look over your trees and see the parachutes that are stuck way high and must stay there until the wind finally blows them down. When all the leaves have fallen. And there is snow on the ground.
Yep, all those are signs that another successful Fourth is in the books. July is off and rolling with a bang. Make the most of the final full month of the summer.

Prep Thoughts
Don’t look now, but American Legion zone tournaments about to get to started. At least for the A classification teams. Among them is the Great Bend Braves. The Braves will get things started Friday night here in town as they host Zone 1 & 2.
The zone features seven teams. The young squad from Great Bend, even by Legion A standards, will try to find its stride in the post season. The Braves were 7-21 this season and will be competing with Hays, TMP, Russell, Salina, Andover, and Cunningham.
Good luck to Coach Konner Ireland and the Braves as they try to extend their season to the state tournament.
The Chiefs will host the AAA zone later in July as well.

Former
Athlete/Coach update
It is that one year in four that track and field really has no highlight of the summer. At least on the world stage. Every fourth year there are the Olympics. In the odd years there is the World Championships. But that other even year – in this case 2018 – there really isn’t much.
National Championships still take place. A few former Cougar recently competed in some of those National Championships.
In the Bahamas Senior Championship, the legend himself is still jumping. Leevan Sands finished third in the triple jump. At 37, Superman jumped just over 52 feet for that finish.
Here is the US, Aleec Harris made the finals of the 110m hurdles, finishing in seventh in 13.76. In Jamacia, the only former Cougar to compete was Ayesha Champagnie who finished runner-up in the javelin. Her throw of 162-6 was in the lead until the next to last throw.

And Finally
“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Those are the first two sentences to the Declaration of Independence. The second of those sentences is perhaps the most powerful words in the history of the United States. Thank you Thomas Jefferson.
To fully appreciate the present, you have to understand the past. In the summer of 1776 at the Second Continental Congress a group of men changed the course of history. Unfortunately in the present day, surveys tell us that only about one in four Americans truly know why we celebrate Independence Day. That is just sad.
The Revolutionary War was more than a year underway that summer, starting in April of 1775. The following summer in Philadelphia the Second Continental Congress met in Freedom Hall and made it clear what the colonies were fighting for - full fledged independence from England and King George III.
They did so with confidence they would achieve their goals, despite fighting against what was the premier military power in the world at the time. In fact, it was akin to the 1980 US hockey team against the Soviets. It took that kind of upset for the the colonies to become the United States of America.
The Declaration actually passed on July 2 of that year with no opposing votes. John Adams thought at that time it would be that date which would be the remembered forever. In fact, he tweeted “The Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha in the history of America.” He later deleted his tweet.
It wasn’t until two days later the full Continental Congress ratified the Declaration. Thus, July 4, not July 2, has become the most memorable Epocha in the history of America. I’m not sure what an Epocha is, but John Adams evidently liked that word. He used it more than once.
The news of the colonies declaring independence was big. CNN had a headline on its webpage the next day that read “Colonies declare Independence; Trump colludes with King George.” To the contrary Fox News headline read “Trump gets it done; Colonies declare Independence.”
Facebook went wild with pictures of the Flag and and fireworks. Great Bend immediately allowed people to rope off entire blocks for celebration. It was, indeed, a memorable time.
So hopefully all had a great time celebrating our independence. Now it’s back to the heat of July and no holiday to celebrate for another two months.

Mike Marzolf is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at MarzolfM@bartonccc.edu.