Kay Wade
Independence
Remember our native landscape of 1776: Giant tulip poplars and white pines were not yet laid low by axes and cross-cut saws. Tonnages of native herbs–goldenseal, ginseng, cohosh–were not yet carted to market. Dark, fertile topsoil was deep across the land. Rivers ran free to the ocean and sturgeon ran free up wild rivers to spawn. Carolina parakeets were splashes of living color, winging through overgrown fields left behind by native peoples. This was land worth fighting for. It still is. We love the United States of America. Let’s spend the next two hundred fifty years taking better care of her. ~K