Happy Birthday, America.

[Sohel]

Happy 232nd birthday America and thank you for directing me to GOD, ice hockey and the Detroit Red Wings.

Thank you for my friends, family and fellow travelers.

Thank you for my girls who are in heaven, and for Elizabeth Anne Blakely of Colorado.

Thank you for Clara Lee, and UC Berkeley, and North Beach Restaurant, and the Ocean Suite at the Post Ranch Inn.

Thank you for Clara Lee and Big Sur California, for French Fried artichoke hearts in Pescadero, and for skinny dipping at Sunset Beach and before heading back to the City at sunrise.

And thanks again for Clara Lee.

Thank you for Ken Kamura and Mike Jones, for Robbin LaVine and Luigi Martini, for Jeremiah Rumi and Roselynn Hsieh, for Abarris Culjak and Todd Ortega, for Larry Cohen and Walter Night Horse, for Shoshana Bensinger and Jimi Fronc, for Shireen Ansari and Daniel Rosensweig, for Dee Dee Wilson and Gretchen Davenport, for Chris Issak and Mike Franti, for Avrim Ben Issak and Djibril Muhammad, for David Boyce and Kevin Cairns, for Josef Bude and Grandma Anne, for Linda, Mike and Fred Blakely, and for Layla Abumrad and Grace Ayani Tilton.

Thank you for your beautiful women and unassuming angels.

Thank you for Half Moon Bay and surfing, and for the kindness of strangers, their easy smiles and "have a nice days".

Thank you for the unforgettable warmth of a people I am privileged to call my own.

Thank you for teaching me to love Bangladesh the way she must be loved, and by showing me that it's OK to be who we are, and become just what we want to become.

Thank you for the Iroquois Confederacy, Thomas Jefferson and his Ibn Sina, for Ben Franklin and elecricity, for the Lakota Nation and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the words of Whitman, Faulkner, Henry Miller, Burroughs, Sylvia Plath, Toni Morrison and Joan Didion.

Thank you for Dr. Seuss and making me laugh my heart out from a lost childhood.

Thank you for kicking Hitler and Yamamoto's butt, and staring down Stalin and his Soviet clones.

Thank you for Chiefs Joseph and Sitting Bull, for Braves Crazy Horse and Red Cloud, for martyrs MLK and Malik Al Shabaz, for true believers Cesar Chavez and Russell Means, for Presidents FDR, Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy, and for teachers Paul Rabinow, Edward Said and Hamza Yusuf.

Thank you for the promise of Barrack Hussein Obama.

Thank you for Jackson Pollock and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Thank you for Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus and Theloneous Monk who make the soul dance, the mind expand, and carry us closer to GOD.

Thank you for Orson Welles and Spike Lee, for Clint Eastwood and Jake Kasdan, for Jim Jarmusch and David Lynch, for Sam Sheppard and Billy Bob Thorton, for Hillary Swank, Jodie Foster, Halle Berry, Gwyneth Paltrow, Clare Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Meryl Streep and Dakota Fanning.

Thank you for Denzel Washington, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, Edward Norton, Benicio Del Toro, Matt Damon, Marlon Brando and Johnny Depp, and for Kevin Spacy.

Thank you for Jack Johnson, James Braddock, Jesse Ownens, Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali, for Grant Fuhr and Mike Richter, for Sandy Koufax and Willie Mays, for Juniors Cal Ripken and Ken Griffey, for Doug Williams and Bo Jackson, for Matt Biondi and Rick Carey, for Jimi Hines and Carl Lewis, and for Lance Armstrong and Kelly Slater.

Thank you for Mia Hamm, Gretchen Bleiler, Jackie Joyner Kersee and Florence Griffith Joyner.

Thank you for Tiger born Eldrick Tont Woods and John Patrick McEnroe Jr, and for Billy jean King and the Williams sisters.

Thank you for Highway 1 and Indian Motorcycles, for the majesty of California and Alaska, for the wild orchids of Hawaii, for the rain-soaked fragrance of Oregon and Washington, for the mystic sanctity of Colorado and Arizona, and for the liberating plains and valleys of Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas.

Thank you for Motown and Otis Redding, for Seattle, Hendrix and Nirvana, for Rare Essence, Public Enemy, NWA, PRT, Freestyle Fellowship, Pharcyde and Outkast, for The Doors, The Ramones, Minor Threat and Nine Inch Nails.

Thank your the heavenly voices of Kathleen Battle and Barbara Hendricks, of Sarah Vaughan and Lady Day, of Diana Ross and Janis Joplin, of Tracy Chapman and Mariah Carey, and making us fall in love over and over again.

Thank you for your 24/7 diners, for San Francisco's cheap Pan Asian and posh New California Cuisines, for soulful Cajun food and Santa Fe Mexican, for Detroit Lebanese and New York City French Italian.

Thank you for your ability to attract, educate, innovate and inspire the good.

Thank you for the freedom of speech and religion, from want and fear, and for the guts to die on my feet rather than to live on my knees.

Thank you for my education, for your Constitution and the Bill of Rights, for making me find GOD in diversity and tolerance, and for protecting us all against the "tyranny of the majority".

Thank you for putting your trust in GOD, my America, and may GOD bring you increase.

[Rabz]

A lotta thanks there Sohel bhai.
God Bless You.

[Bancan]

Happy 4th of July

[Electrequiem]

Thank you Sohel bhai for that very heart-warming and optimistic post. It made me realize that not all is lost in this gem of a Nation ...

232 Years...and counting.

God bless America.

[al Furqaan]

lets just hope the neo-cons don't wreck it for the rest of us.

[Sohel]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
lets just hope the neo-cons don't wreck it for the rest of us.

Don't let them ...

[BanCricFan]

Originally Posted by Electrequiem
God bless America.

Aameen!

America will be a great nation once her sons and daughters re-establish the lofty ideals of her Founding Fathers.

We all wish for An America which is: "democratic at home and NOT tyranical abroad"...Peace and Justice for all!

[sandpiper]

Beautiful post, Sohel bhai.
God bless USA.

[Aritro]

Originally Posted by Sohel NR

Thank you for Jackson Pollock

Thank you indeed for Jackson Pollock, whose deeds inspire us all with the knowledge that even the least talented among us can achieve immortality simply by tipping cans of paint on a flat canvass and calling it modern art

[Alien]

I'd rather celebrate Israel's 60.