Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Tonight, on July 4th, Independence Day, as I watched a documentary about the soldiers of all races and creeds who fought, were injured and died, who endured the conditions of living in trenches and all manner of hardships associated with all wars unimaginable to us, I remembered how blessed I was to have had those who have gone before me fight to keep us all free.

How ungrateful it would seem to them to know that we were fighting and bickering among ourselves over trivialities.I am very thankful that I live in Mathews where we all help each other, from the gentleman who helped me load my garbage in the dumpster at the recycling station to the young man at Food Lion who helped me load my groceries in the car when it was hard for me.

I am thankful, too, for people like Wayne and Jeanie at Horn Harbor Marina who helped to remind me that it was Independence Day—fireworks symbolic of the barrages that took the lives of so many young men in the past in all ...