Happy Fourth of July

As the celebrations for the fourth of July send us way back to declaring independence, I'd just like to pay honor to Justice Thurgood Marshall and the wisdom in his comments about the Founders: "I [do not] find the wisdom, foresight and sense of justice exhibited by the Framers particularly profound." "To the contrary, the government devised was defective from the start…requiring several amendments, a civil war and momentous social transformation to attain the system of … we hold as fundamental today."
So here's a little "Thank You" not to the people who have fought in wars that often have very little to do with our own freedom, or even making the lives better for others, but to all the people who have fought, often peacefully via civil disobedience, how have made the U.S. a place where I, as a woman, have a right to vote, where my brother could marry the woman he's been in love with since they were in high school (they're an interracial couple), where we had a recent race within the Democratic party to see who would be our next president, a white woman or a man of color.
Here's to all of the people who have fought and sacrificed so much to try to actually make the U.S. a place that we all can be proud of.