By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter

You should be enjoying the holiday (as I plan to, so this will be a short post.)  But before I send  you on your way, a couple of things to remember as we celebrate Independence.  Things are far from perfect, but:

1.  We Americans don't have to risk our lives to vote.  So how come more of us don't do it?  And, the old argument "they're all alike" just doesn't fly. The last presidential election should put that one to rest once and for all.  Or, read up on Iran's election (or Russia's, or Iraq's...or....); those folks would beg to differ.  There's always such a thing as the lesser of two evils, as well.

2.  We're still here. Sure, the US has a LOT of big problems, but the grand experiment of democracy is still chugging along.  Rather you like him or not - the fact that we elected an African-American named Barack Hussein Obama only seven years after 9/11 (and despite all the yelling and fear-mongering) - says something very positive about us and our system of government. 

Our Founding Fathers were a wildly diverse group of guys, many of whom didn't like each other very much...and had violent disagreements.  Yet, somehow they managed - without computers, air-conditioning or the Internet - to come together in a stifing room and build a country.  By contrast, imagine Newt Gingrich, John Boehner, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid coming together to produce anything (other than eye-rolling media fodder). Not happenin'. (I do, however, find it mildly amusing that Senator Boehner seems to wear as much make-up as Governor Palin...dial down the orange, John!...;-)

So, stop worrying for a day about the tough times.  Go wave a sparkler and be grateful for what we do have, including unlimited opportunities to make things better - in business, life and government - thanks to a bunch of wild-eyed, unrealistic, heretical guys back in the 1770s...