This weekend Americans all over this wonderful land of opportunity will take time away from the daily grind to spend time relaxing.

The national holiday known as Labor Day will be celebrated with parades and picnics as workers honor the many contributions of organized labor and the trade unions.

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from a reader who suggested a column regarding the low voter turnout in the last election. I told him I would write one just prior to the next election to encourage people to express their opinions at the ballot box.

While asking a few folks why they hadn't bothered to vote, I heard the same refrain over and over again. "It doesn't matter any more" or "The judges just overturn what we vote in."

In the early morning hours of Monday, August 6, 1945 the brave men of the flight crew on the Enola Gay dropped their payload dubbed "Little Boy" on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The world changed at that very moment. On that day 65 years ago, the United States unleashed nuclear power against an enemy that sent shock waves around the world even greater than the blast that was felt by our enemy.

The world had never seen such an explosive force. The power of that one bomb was as great as all the power of all the bombs used up to that point in the war. The devastation was swift. Half of the100,000 who died from that bombing run died that first day and the rest were dead within four months from the effects of radiation or burns suffered that morning.

Last Monday Shirley Sharrod was called on her cellular phone by a USDA staffer named Cooke who told Shirley to pull over in her car and resign as her appearance before the NAACP in early spring was going to be discussed on Glenn Beck's program that evening. The staffer told Sharrod that the White House wanted her gone immediately.

Beck never mentioned the story on that evening. We all know by now that the clip of Sharrod's speech was taken out of context, which isn't new for Washington. The White House, wanting to nip the story in the bud, over-reacted and called for her resignation.

As the state and federal budget woes continue there are people who want to make sure we get our monies worth whenever we spend a nickel. On that I think we all agree.

There are also many who believe that a large number of governmental workers are overpaid and many of these folks are demanding reductions of salaries because they want to "get their monies worth."

Last Sunday, July 4, many citizens came to the park in Oakhurst to celebrate being free Americans. There were hundreds of folks of all ages in red, white, and blue cheering the love of liberty that they enjoy every day.

Hundreds of people expressing their concerns about the direction this wonderful nation has been heading these past few years and they were enjoying those First Amendment Rights to speak their minds and to peaceably assemble. Think about that for a few moments. People who are angry about what is happening to them through actions in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., who have gathered to express that frustration and the cops were not needed to protect anyone. It was a peaceful crowd.