I was thinking about the Fourth of July yesterday. I'm not a holiday guy, to me a holiday is generally a work and my 'holiday' or day off usually happens on another day. I'm kinda glad about that because it gives me a chance to think about what the holiday is and do my part, by doing my job, to help others see what it means. The Fourth of July is visually easy--you get red, white and Blue in the picture and you've got a big part of the story done. But too me that makes it more difficult--how do I take the elements and try to find a story that won't bore the reader or worse become a cliche'--which in my mind diminishes the impact of what the truth of a story is all about. I was thinking yesterday about what America started out standing for and how we have grown this republic into a free-enterprise system where with hard work, luck and proper amount of support, we really can achieve anything. In this photo business that we're starting we have discovered that we need to work our tails off, put in a lot of extra hours in order to do what we love to do, but we can do that, and we are doing that. Thats America. Today I saw this scout named Hayden and he has a Mohawk bleached and blue strip painted down the center of it. Thats America. I knew the moment I saw him that that is why we remember and commemorate the founder's of this country. Those very smart people knew how important it is to mankind's survival to allow and embrace diversity. Meadville Tribune photograph by Richard Sayer