Happy Independence Day 2014 -- July 4, 2014

Happy Fourth of July to all.
A poster from World War One celebrates the holiday in 1918. 

Seventy-five years ago, on 04-July-1939, Lou Gehrig made his last public speech, after he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).  He said "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."

I was sad to learn of the passing of Louis Zamperini, an American hero.  He ran in the 1936 Olympics.  He served in the US Army Air Forces during World War II, flying B-24s in the Pacific.  While searching for lost airmen, his plane crashed because of mechanical problems.  He drifted in a raft with two other survivors of the crash.  One died, but the Zamperini and the other drifted for 47 days until they reached the Marianas.  The Japanese captured them and Zamperini was treated brutally because he was famous.  Despite this, after the war he talked to people about forgiveness.