July 4 – Independence Day
“This, then, is the state of the union: free and restless, growing and full of hope. So it was in the beginning. So it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to keep the faith.”
– Lyndon B. Johnson
“Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.”
– Louis D. Brandeis
“America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact — the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality.”
– Adlai Stevenson
“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”
– William Faulkner
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
– Thomas Paine
“If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace.”
– Hamilton Fish
“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.”
– Erma Bombeck
National Junk Food Day
July 21
“Junk food would be a lot easier to avoid, if it actually tasted like junk.”
– Shutupimtalking.com
“I need to start eating more healthy, but first I need to eat all the junk food in the house so it’s not there to tempt me anymore.”
– Unknown
“A balanced diet is a cookie in both hands.”
– Author unknown
“Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself”
– Michael Pollan
American Family Day
August 15
“Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.”
– George Burns
“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.”
– Richard Bach
“Let us remember we are all part of one American family. We are united in common values, and that includes belief in equality under the law, basic respect for public order, and the right of peaceful protest.”
– Barack Obama
“Families are like fudge – mostly sweet with a few nuts.”
– Unknown
“Everyone needs a house to live in, but a supportive family is what builds a home.”
– Anthony Liccione
“I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.”
– Harry S. Truman
“Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs. The ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile, and who love you no matter what.”
– Author Unknown
National Parks Service
Established August 1916
“If we are to have broad-thinking men and women of high mentality, of good physique and with a true perspective on life, we must allow our populace a communion with nature in areas of more or less wilderness condition.”
– Arthur Carhart, Former official, U.S. Forest Service
“Wilderness itself is the basis of all our civilization. I wonder if we have enough reverence for life to concede to wilderness the right to live on? I hope that the United States of America is not so rich that she can afford to let these wildernesses pass by. Or so poor that she cannot afford to keep them.”
– Margaret (Mardy) Murie