Had some work to do on Celtic Cheer. The sewn connection popped on my last sail at the clew of my Genoa ( point of front sail tore loose) during a robust sail with my wife the other day. I have it loaded in the truck to get repaired next week at my sailmaker’s shop. Thought it was the perfect day to hoist my American flag. Typical boat outfit: White BoyScout performance fabric shirt khaki performance fabric shorts. Grey topsiders wide brimmed Boy Scout hat. Apple Watch (on a final quest to dial in body proportions. Did 1100 calories over BMR yesterday beginning with a lifting session and a 2,000 yard swim). Very blessed to have grown up in the south central part of the USA. I am very grateful and proud of those men and women in uniform that have given to us all the rights we enjoy, and am ever aware that we are always just one generation away from frittering it all away. God Bless America…….please.

Hope you’re off to a great 4th of July weekend. I’ll let my Invicta Bolt do all the talking!

250 years. Any nation that has been around that long has seen its share of turmoil, and the US certainly has. There have been too many occasions where the wall of hate was allowed to flourish whether it be the enslavement of millions, the genocide against the Native Americans, pogroms against Asian-Americans, and many other deep systemic problems. It was injustice like this that led to Frederick Douglas to proclaim about the 4th of July, "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine, You may rejoice, I must mourn.” But I am not here to mourn today. I instead want to offer a vision of what the US could be, and what we should strive toward. A few weeks ago, I went to a concert in the park, and there I was struck by the diversity I saw in the audience. There was a gay interracial couple, African-Americans, and a little Chinese boy running around in circles around his family. He was seemingly reveling in his ability to use both legs. Critically, there we all were listening to music by an Indian-American and Jewish man. For the briefest of moments, the wall of hate was non-existent. And when one looks over the history of the US, one can see other examples. We owe our existence to the unity of diverse peoples as without the French, the British would never have been blocked into Yorktown. Without the efforts of a gay German man, the US army would not have been drilled into shape. Close to 200 years later, the US faced perhaps the greatest menace the world has ever known in Nazi Germany, and once again a unity of diverse peoples was needed to defeat it whether it the be the work of the "Navajo" code talkers, the heroic efforts of the all Black 320 Barrage Balloon regiment, or the courage of the 442nd all Japanese American Infantry regiment that, even after being imprisoned by the American government, served with such incredible courage that in the space of two years 4000 bronze star medals, seven presidential unit citations, and 21 medals of honor. When I think of all of this, I think we needn't be a nation that is defined by the wall of hate, but rather by the garden of multiculturalism. Lyndon Johnson understood this when he signed the Immigration and Naturalization act that ended immigrant quotas, and after doing so, he proclaimed "The [US] flourished because it was fed from so many sources—because it was nourished by so many cultures and traditions and peoples." Only a fool would act as if the last 250 years have been perfect, but only a fool wouldn't want to work to make the next 250 years better. And maybe just maybe we will truly be able to embody those words released 250 years ago, "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."