If it wasn’t for the Fourth of July...

If it wasn’t for the Fourth of July, we’d have to find another day to load up on hamburgers, hot dawgs and apple pie (or cherry, my favorite, sugar free, of course)...
If it wasn’t for the Fourth of July, we probably wouldn’t head for a fireworks stand and buy up every sparkler and skyrocket we could afford, then try to find a safe and legal place to fire them off...
If it wasn’t for the Fourth of July, Coney Island, N.Y. would probably welcome roller coaster riders instead of the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, where people have been known to inhale up to 69 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes, live on ESPN...
If it wasn’t for the Fourth of July and what happened on this day in 1776, there might still be an America, but it could be one we wouldn’t recognize.
On this day 241 years ago, there wasn’t an ESPN, or an ABC, or a CBS, or an NBC, or any of the other networks inside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall to carry live the signing of our Declaration of Independence by a group of brave patriots, who’d had it up to here with being treated like second-class citizens by the home office and it’s C.E.O. King George. They literally stuck their collective necks out to tell him “We’re running our own show now. See ya, wouldn’t want to be ya.”
Out of this came years of revolutionary war, which gave birth to the greatest nation ever, the United States of America!
If it wasn’t for the Fourth of July, who knows if there would have ever been Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Soccer, the NCAA, or UIL District 8-6A, where my beloved Copperas Cove Bulldawgs compete.
If it wasn’t for the Fourth of July, we wouldn’t have a form of government where it’s leaders are chosen by the citizens.  If it wasn’t for the Fourth of July, those citizens wouldn’t have the right to argue about whose ideas are best and vice versa. 
If it wasn’t for the Fourth of July, fans of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox couldn’t squabble for 100 years over Babe Ruth being sent from Beantown to the Bronx.
If it wasn’t for the Fourth of July, there likely wouldn’t be any Dallas Cowboys for Philadelphia Eagle followers to dislike, or the intense rivalry between the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma.
The list goes on, but you know what I think?
I’d say Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Hancock and all the other guys in that hot, sweaty room in Philadelphia hit a home run when they signed that piece of paper.
If it wasn’t for the Fourth of July, we likely would never have heard Lee Greenwood sing a song he wrote.  The one called.
“God Bless the USA!”
Happy Birthday, America!