Happy 4th of July!

I went to Rutland tonight in spite of the rain to see their "usual" spectacular display which seemed even better and longer than in past years. Because of this evening's earlier downpour, many people stood to watch. Surprisingly it appeared as though there were more people there o watch the fireworks than ever before. What a wonderful celebration in Rutland, bringing folks together to entertain and to remind them that we are a blessed nation. At the same time that a patriotic feeling welled up within me, an uneasiness crept in due to the large number of teen-ager smokers around me. Many teens walked by as I stood with my head bent towards the sky. Unfortunately many of those teens were smoking. As responsible citizens how can we help curb teen smoking? How can we discourage the teens in our lives to never try not even a single cigarette? We want our country to stay strong and healthy. Isn't the state of our country dependent on the state of its citizens?

So on one hand, I was celebrating, thinking how fortunate we are to be living in the United States of America. On the other, I was trying to figure out why so many teen -agers were smoking, especially since word is out and has been for a long time that avoiding cigarettes is the wise and healthful thing to do. After the grand finale a haze of smoke hovered very close in front of me and for a minute I wondered whether that smoke was from the fireworks or the cigarettes.