I am a Patriot.

As Americans, we can argue until we're blue in the face over political hot button issues that divide us socially and economically. On the eve of the Fourth, let's step away from the lines that partition us and move towards the middle. Let's agree to stop letting the government define what America is for the weekend.What makes you an American has nothing to do with who's calling the shots on Capital Hill. What makes you an American comes from inside of you. It's a way of being, an outlook on life.

Whatever echoes in the beat of your heart, the thing that makes it hard to swallow and runs through your blood when you hear the national anthem makes you an American. The drive to work hard and be the best makes you an American. The willingness to help someone in need regardless of who they are makes you an American. The desire to DO instead of watch makes you an American.

When unthinkable catastrophes happen, Americans come together regardless of tremendous individual differences to stand united against whatever it is, be it people who fly planes into buildings, super storms that wipe out towns along the northeast coast, people who place bombs at finish lines, tornadoes that level towns in Oklahoma, or a man who shoots up a school in Connecticut in a fit of madness. The American people will not be defeated regardless of what other nations, mother nature, religious extremists, or even individual citizens do on our soil.

You can't break us, we murmur. We are Americans, we declare. We will get through this together, we say. What can we do to help, we ask.

That is America. Don't let elected officials, your beef with them, their actions or inaction turn you against your own country, because they are not what this country is about.

This song is one of my favorites, and it always makes the hair on my arms stand up a little. It does a good job of saying even if you aren't always happy with who's running your country, some of the things happening here, or some of the people living in it; you can still really love the shit out of it and think it's the greatest country in the world.

And I ain't no communist 

And I ain't no socialist 

And I ain't no capitalist 

And I ain't no imperialist 

And I ain't no democrat 

Sure as fuck ain't no republican either 

I only know one party 

And that is freedom 

I love my country. I'm thankful to live here in the birthplace of the nation every day, but especially during this most patriotic week of the summer.

Enjoy celebrating our independence this weekend. Say thank you to those on our borders and on the ground in foreign lands protecting our way of life. Don't blow anything up with fireworks and don't drive drunk.

I'll see you back here on Monday. Four day weekend, holler at me.

Happy Fourth, 'Merica. From sea to shining sea.

Linking up for Wednesday Gratitude, Random Wednesday and Whatever Wednesday