By Margaret Evans, Editor

My family and I have recently fallen prey – and happily so – to the popular American craze known as Ancestry DNA. 

Yes, we did it. We spit into the vial.

It’s early on the morning of July 5th and I’m at my desk, catching up on yesterday’s work.

It was the least Fourthy Fourth I can remember at our house, with nary a dash of pomp nor circumstance. I just wasn’t feeling it. But old habits die hard, so I took the day off. It seemed the patriotic thing to do.

These days, my friends and loved ones slide down both sides on the arc of the political rainbow, and I am a better person because of them. Without an array of conservative, moderate, and liberal thinkers in my inner circle, I would not have the ability to hold the debate inside of my head to ferret out what I hold true, what I struggle to understand, and what I cannot accept. Political discussions wake me up and remind me of my freedoms under our Bill of Rights, and my ease in taking them for granted growing up in America.