No independence is won without a struggle.
The signing of the Declaration on the 4th was only the beginning of what it would take to bring those ideals to bear. So, July 5th was really day one of this on-going struggle we’ve been in to make our dream of “freedom for all” a reality.
July 5th has always had an odd significance in my life. After college I moved to New York, because I had no idea what else to do. I loved New York. Still do. It was not as crazy about me. July 5th was the day I moved home to my mom’s to regroup. I’ll live in New York again when I’m rich. I’m just too big a princess to do day to day in Manhattan otherwise.
The 5th has continued throughout my life to be a day of beginnings for me. Today, I observe the 16th anniversary of the single most noteworthy beginning for me so far.
April that year, I had met someone when I was in Austin for a friend’s wedding. It was something special. It was love. I said good-bye at the airport but I could not live with that for long. We talked constantly on the phone. His life in Austin was at loose ends and I could not wait. Soon, he was in Los Angeles and I was, for the first and only time in my life, actually living with someone who was there, just because he wanted to be with me.
My first book was due out that summer. I was writing the screenplay for the movie deal that I’d already made for the book. And I was in love and living with someone who said he loved me.
It was at last, I thought, the moment when my life would finally begin.
Eric Shaw Quinn 