Europe falling apart, ISIS beheading folks, Donald Trump running for president, Congress totally incompetent.

July 4th celebration dinner at the Vashon Senior Center 2015: home of The Greatest Generation. Fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, coleslaw, watermelon and cake.

Frail folks, some blind, most deaf, all disabled. The hokey part: two pages of songs for after dinner, which many today might feel embarrassed to sing: “America the Beautiful,” the national anthem,  “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” various hymns. We didn’t sing “My Bonnie Lies Over —” I can’t even finish writing that one. We dare not do that one here.

When the singing starts, old men struggle to stand at attention and salute. Tears fill some eyes. A few old bullet wounds among this crowd. Some from the Normandy invasion. All of us remember that.

This is a happy group; a casual observer would never guess. They give me the courage to come again, to be glad I’m above ground on this July 4th. And to remember that sometimes we are the “good guys.”

— Lawrence Dean