My Father and The Fourth

On the Fourth of July, after going to Mom’s in Hamilton and having a cookout with her and my older brother, Tim, I made my way up to Centerville for an evening with a holy couple and their family, Scott and Mary Brueggemeyer. They were new parishioners at Incarnation, my last assignment, just as I was new there, and we hit it off. They invited me up for another year of Scott’s world-famous fireworks! Scott, who worked part-time at the parish, loves to poke fun and stir the pot!

I’ve loved fireworks for as long as I can remember because my father, Dick, loved and was fascinated with fireworks. Like Scott, sometime during the year, he would head south to Kentucky where the selection of fireworks was more numerous and powerful.

Leading up to the Fourth and even after, when at least a couple of neighbors were outside, Dad would put a single firecracker in the open hub of a metal wagon wheel he attached to our front yard light pole for Mom, Carol. (She liked colonial times, furniture for example, and her favorite place in the whole world was Colonial Williamsburg.) Then Dad would light the firecracker and duck under the carport.

Just after the cracker popped, he would come out of the carport pretending surprise and call the name of one of a neighbor, as if they had committed the crime, asking them “to keep it down over there.” At other times, if my younger brother, Mike, and I were close by, we would grab our toy muskets; put ourselves a safe distance in front of the wheel pretending it was a cannon. We would fall to the ground after the discharge, vanquished in a revolutionary war battle.

Dad was born a pyrotechnic and a pot stirrer. Twice when he was a boy he played with matches enough to cause a stir. The first time, he caught a closet on fire. The second time, increasing the volume of the flames, he accidentally set a whole field near his house afire, watching as the fire department extinguished the blaze.

I pray for Dad daily, along with my other deceased relatives. Their love and the powerful help of their prayers touch us in ways we will know only when we are in heaven with them by Jesus’ grace!

Sure, I pray for Dad even more on days like his birthday, September 20, and his death day, April 12. However, most of all, my prayers go up for him like fireworks on the Fourth of July, which brings a happy explosion of memories of Dad in the lights and sounds, and in people like Scott, who are fascinated with pyrotechnics and stirring pots.

Special Election in August
Please see the important announcement below explaining why perhaps even more than usual, we ought to go to the polls in the August special election.

Sincerely and with Love in Christ,
Fr. Pat

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON UPCOMING ELECTIONS
As our bishops remind us, “In the Catholic Tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation” (Faithful Citizenship, no. 13). We urge you to vote in the upcoming Ohio special election on August 8th. If you are not registered or need to update your name or address, please go to https:// votehamiltoncountyohio.gov/ and click on the “Register” tab by July 10 to make sure you are ready to vote in the upcoming election (early voting starts July 11). Issue 1 on the ballot for the August 8th special election asks voters if Ohio should “require that any proposed amendment to the Constitution of the State of Ohio received the approval of at least 60 percent of eligible voters voting on the proposed amendment.” Because Issue 1 does not contain any moral content, the Ohio bishops have not taken an official position on it. However, Archbishop Schnurr offers the following for your consideration: “Issue 1 will increase the threshold required for any proposed amendment to the Constitution of Ohio from a simple majority vote to at least a 60 percent majority vote in order to pass. Therefore, a “yes” vote on Issue 1 will make it more difficult to pass any future amendment to the Constitution of Ohio, including this November’s ballot initiative seeking an abortion rights constitutional amendment that expands and enshrines abortion at the expense of protections of preborn children and women. A “no” vote on Issue 1 will maintain the current threshold, making it easier to pass an amendment to Ohio’s constitution, including the one coming this November on the abortion expansion amendment.”

Questions? Contact Mary Clark, [email protected] or 513-365-2606.