'); } -->
Independence Day is my favorite secular holiday. I still get emotional with all the celebrations. My dad would tell us, "honor our flag" and "respect our country" — before either was officially his. That all-important piece of paper and little American flag didn't affect Dad's patriotism in any way.
Welcome to the Great Recession fueled largely by credit card mentalities at the state, city and personal levels. Somewhere in the past 25 years, we forgot about how to run our lives and governments like businesses, and instead developed a speculative spending mind-set that has finally toppled us into a quagmire.