The Rev. Dennis Hysom

Independence Day

As a kid, I grew up fishing and sailing on Lake Pontchartrain. I learned to respect the weather. One summer afternoon as I was standing near the Coast Guard Station at the mouth of the harbor, a vicious summer squall came roaring in. As I sat in the safety of the car, I watched a sailboat fight for survival. It was making a run to the safety of the harbor when the storm hit. It sat floundering in the high waves and brutal cross winds just at the entrance of the jetty that protected the harbor entrance. A few more feet and it would have found smooth water. Unfortunately, it was on the wrong side of the entrance.

Fourth of July: Vision

The term “the road to war” is defined as the long and complicated process where various factors, actions and decisions lead to an outcome. This term can be applied to the events leading up to our own nation’s decision to fight for independence. On this “road to war,” two divergent visions of rights, freedom, governance, control and status clashed: the American vision and the British vision. And it was not until 1783, nearly eight years after the events in 1775 at Lexington and Concord, that a peace treaty would be signed in Paris.