Carrot Top

Grace Seibold lost her son in WWI and organized a group of mothers who were going through the same grief which was named the American Gold Star Mothers, Inc. This name came from the custom of families of servicemen hanging a banner called a Service Flag in the window of their homes. The Service Flag had a star for each family member in the military. Families hung a blue star on the Service Flag for those that were living and a gold star in honor of the deceased veteran. On May 28, 1918, President Wilson approved that American women should wear a black band on the left arm and a yellow star on the band for each member of the family who had died while serving in the military.

Congress approved on June 23, 1936 that the last Sunday in September be designated as Gold Star Mother’s Day due to the “American Gold Star Mothers suffering supreme sacrifice in the loss of their sons and daughters in World Wars” as it is said in the Public Resolution 123.

You can see the activities that are taking place in Washington, DC here.

Membership today is open to any American woman whose son or daughter has died in the line of duty while in the US Armed Forces. Stepmothers and adoptive mothers are eligible for membership too. Husbands and childrenla of American Gold Star Mothers can become Associate Members who do not vote or pay dues.

The Gold Star Mothers provide emotional support for each other and they have a huge sense of patriotism. They have always been involved in a lot of volunteer work and continue to do so.

September 11, 2007 is Patriot Day. This national observance marks the anniversary of the most devastating terrorist attacks ever on American soil and honor the thousands who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.

Government and citizens are asked to pay tribute with patriotic activities and to fly the flag at half-staff from sunrise to sunset.

On October 25th, 2001, Representative Vito Fossella of New York introduced a bill to create a national day of remembrance for the victims of 9/11. Patriot Day was signed into public law on December 18th, 2001 by President George W. Bush. Each year, the President of the United States will issue a proclamation regarding its observance.

Patriot Day should not be confused with Patriot’s Day, which is a regional holiday celebrated in New England marking the anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord.

It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center. Seven tons melted down and cast to form the ship’s “stem bar” — part of the ship’s bow

It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Mar ines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA to cast the ship’s bow section. When it was pour ed into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003, “those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence,” recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. “It was a spiritual moment for everybody there.”

The construction workers reportedly treated it with “reverence usually accorded to religious relics,” touching it as they walked by.

On 9 September 2004, the Secretary of the Navy announced that two of her sister ships will be named Arlington and Somerset, also to commemorate the attacks.

The contract to build New York was awarded to Northrop Grumman Ship Systems of New Orleans, Louisiana in 2003.

The ship’s motto? “Never Forget”.

Shortly after 11 September 2001, Governor of New York George E. Pataki wrote a letter to Secretary of the Navy Gordon England The request was approved 28 August 2002.

The Declaration of Independence document gave independence of the 13 British colonies in America and was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, in the name of the Virginia delegates to the Continental Congress, moved that “these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved.” This motion was seconded by John Adams of Massachusetts, but action thereon was deferred until July 1, and the resolution was passed on the following day.

In the meantime, a committee (appointed June 11) comprising the delegates Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston was preparing a declaration in line with Lee’s resolution. Jefferson prepared the draft, using “neither book nor pamphlet,” as he later said. Adams and Franklin made a number of minor changes in Jefferson’s draft before it was submitted to Congress, which, on July 4, made a number of additional small alterations, deleted several sections, including one condemning black slavery, incorporated Lee’s resolution, and issued the whole as the Declaration of Independence.

The declaration was adopted by a unanimous vote of the delegates of 12 colonies, those representing New York not voting because they had not been authorized to do so. On July 9, however, the New York Provincial Congress voted to endorse the declaration:

“Resolved, That the Declaration passed on the 4th, be fairly engrossed on parchment with the title and stile of ‘The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America’ and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress.”

On August 2, it was signed by the 53 members present on parchment in accordance with a resolution passed by Congress on July 19. On August 2, it was signed by the 53 members present. The 3 who were absent signed later.

With all of these patriotic days coming up (Patriot Day, Constitution Day, and Gold Star Mother’s Day) and the ones that have passed (Memorial Day, Flag Day, and Independence Day) it makes me think of when I was young in school and had to memorize certain things. We had to memorize the Bill of Rights, Pledge of Allegiance and the Preamble to the Constitution. The Preamble is what I remember the most.

Here’s what I had to memorize back then.

We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, to ordain and establish the Constitution of the United States of America.

There’s a great website that interprets the Declaration of Independence. You can read how it was actually written and then click on asterisks to see an interpretation of it in simple terms. This is a great way to gain knowledge of one of our most important documents in the US.

After you read up on the in-depth look into this document then you can take a quiz to test your knowledge of the events surrounding the signing of this historic declaration.

This is something that I’ve always wondered and was surprised by what I found out. Well the first 4th of July parade wasn’t on a street as they are today.

It really was a parade of boats on the Potomac River in Washington, DC. President John Quincy Adams and a group of American and foreign dignitaries boarded a steamboat and led a procession of barges and other boats up the river to the site today known as The Tidal Basin. They then transferred to smaller boats, floated up the old Washington Canal to the place that had been selected for the new Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. President Adams did the groundbreaking there for the waterway canal to cut straight through the heart of Washington DC between the Capitol building and Washington Monument.

The term Fireworks didn’t come about until 1777 when the first Fourth of July celebration took place. Before that they were simply called rockets. Because they were more visual than anything, they called them fireworks. Later on, the ones that were made for noise and not beauty were called fire crackers. And in 1880 sparklers were created. Sparklers are long thin wands that split out bursts of sparks in waterfall-style patterns.

In the Middle Ages, they had firemasters who designed and put on elaborate fireworks displays for military victories, religious festivals and crowning of kings and queens. Because this became so popular, by the 1700s they needed help, and so the assistants were known as wild men or green men because they wore caps made of green leaves.

They were much like jesters, flitting among the crowds telling stories, jokes and warning people to stand back. Then they would set off the fireworks with lighted sticks called fire clubs. This was a dangerous job and many green men were injured or killed when a firecracker misfired or didn’t shoot high enough in the air to be safe.

When fireworks came to America they were used for both domestic and public celebrations. By 1870, American companies were marketing fireworks for private use by renaming them Roman Candles, Flying Dragons, Sun Wheels, and Prismatic Foundations. And the popularity of the at home in your backyard fireworks fun meant many people didn’t have to deal with huge crowds to enjoy them. But, it meant they had to pay for them, whereas the public displays were usually paid for by the town and free to view.

Only 35 states as of right now have fireworks legal for the public to use. The other 15 states make it illegal totally. And in the case of some states they allow only certain kinds of fireworks to be legal. All states since 1966 have banned Cherry Bombs and other large firecrackers due to the large number of injuries.

The Liberty Bell travelled around the country in the late 1800s helping to heal a divided country and remind Americans of when they used to fight and work together for independence.

It was cast in London for the Pennsylvania State House and cracked soon after it arrived. Local craftsmen John Pass and John Stow cast a new bell in 1753, using metal from the English bell. The bell has cracked twice since then and no one knows why it cracked either time. The last time was in 1846 for George Washington’s birthday and hasn’t been used since.

The bell is made of 70% copper, 25% tin and small amounts of other elements. It also weighs 2080 pounds and is about 3 feet in length. The federal government gave every state and its territories a replica of the Liberty Bell in the 1950s as part of a national U.S. Savings Bond campaign. The Bell has been moved from Independence Hall (the Pennsylvania State House) in 1976 to the Liberty Bell Pavilion from 1976 to 2003 and the new Liberty Bell Center beginning on October 9, 2003.

Check out these sites for more information on the making of the Liberty Bell and the moving of it.

The fireworks imported from China into the United States were valued at $216 million, in 2006.
Japan purchases more fireworks than any other country.
The projected number of U.S. residents will be 302 million by July 4, 2007.
It is estimated that there were 2.5 million people living in the colonies in July 1776.
There are 30 places in the United States with the word “liberty” in their name.
There are 11 places in the United States with the word “independence” in their name.
There are five places in the United States with the word “freedom” in their name.
There are five places in the United States with the word “America” in their name.
There is one city in Indiana named “Patriot.”
The U.S. flags imported into the United States were valued at $5 million, in 2006.
The estimated amount of hot dogs eaten by Americans on the Fourth of July is 150 million.
One-half of the potatoes made for chips or salad at an Independence Day cookout were grown in Idaho or Washington.
Approximately 74 million Americans participated in a Fourth of July barbecue in 2006.
The number of foreign-born residents in the United States was 34 million in 2004 and 53 percent of that amount were born in Latin America.
The number of immigrants granted legal permanent residence in the United States was 706,000, in 2003.
The number of immigrants who became naturalized citizens in the United States was 463,000, in 2003.