July

While most of us think of July as the middle of vacation season—a time for back yard cookouts and napping under a shaded tree in a hammock—the world seems to revolve around the word freedom. The list of nations that gained their freedom during this particular month attests to this seasonal trend. From Canada and the United States to Peru and other points south, the July watchwords were independence and freedom. The echoes of “liberte, egalite, fraternite” chimed through France, Belgium, and the north African coastal nation of Algeria. During the month of July in 321 ad, freedom from work was proclaimed by the Roman emperor Constantine. Now that’s something for which we can all hum the V for victory theme as Winston Churchill did in 1941. But some of you surely agree with Horace Greeley who said in July: “Go west, young man! Go west!” The freedom of the wide open spaces are near and dear to all of us.