The 4th of July was a mile marker for the summer holiday when I was young. June was a distant memory and school stood in the road of fun like a monolith. July warned that if you are going to do something special for your school report ‘What I Did During My Summer Vacation’ you had better get to it.

‘I am so excited about the 4th,’ Jane said with glee! ‘We are going to SIU and see the massive fireworks display,’ she added. ‘I hear that their fireworks are as good as Washington D.C.,’ Jane said.

‘You know President Kennedy will be there to speak,’ Chet said. ‘The Cuban Missle Crisis has changed him he is looking for a way to get out of Vietnam,’ Chet continued. ‘Kennedy is a war hero and understands the devastation of battle,’ he said solemnly.

‘Many politicians love a war and the opportunity to exert their perceived power,’ said Billy B. ‘I never trusted Nixon, and Neva J says that he has a character deficit,’ he continued. ‘Neva J had a dream where Kennedy was assassinated and Lyndon Johnson became President engulfing the country in thousands of lives lost in Vietnam,’ Billy B said quietly.

‘What would have happened if the Supreme Court ruling regarding the President of the United States having unlimited immunity for his official acts had been former Presidents Johnson and Nixon,’ asked Chet? ‘What if they attempted to have limited Nuclear War…and succeded,’ Chet continued. ‘Nixon could have laughed off Watergate and chalked up his crimes to official Presidential business,’ Chet said with a tear in his eye.

‘I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’ Jane said. ‘How can we have ‘Liberty and Justice For All, when our President is above the law that governs the rest of us,’ Jane said as the group of friends remembered their youth…