Greetings Friends,
It’s an All-American Summer.
First off, I am so excited that my daughter Abigail is engaged to a great guy, Harrison Power. So excited for the addition to our family and so proud that our girls have chosen such wonderful people. It’s an exciting time and let the wedding planning begin.
As we come out of Graffiti Summer, remembering the times of the 40s 50s when there was a newfound independence and the early 60s where there was a civic engagement with the ability to speak freely like never before. Independence and freedom. That is what it really means to be an American. I was in China last year and experienced what it was like to live with a filter on what you could learn and know. To have freedom taken away, even temporarily makes you realize how important our open and free society is. Freedom to be what and who you want to be and go where you want to go is what we hold so dear and work hard to protect. We turn to each other to celebrate what makes our community special. You think about it, there is so much that can go wrong in the world, it shows us that the more we strengthen our community, get to know our people, that a solid community becomes the true strength of America. We just need to connect more and celebrate and support all of our people.
I am so excited for the 108th Stanislaus County Fair this year. This is a great opportunity to get our community together. My band, Third Party will be there on opening night, rocking the stage with classic hits for you to enjoy and maybe even dance to. There are so many great local musicians and bands that will be rocking the stage at the Fair, at Music in the Plaza on Friday nights, on the patios of our cafes and the stages of our theatres. Music gets you through any time of year. Later in July, ModestoView is proud to be a sponsor of the Chill List Team Poetry Slam. This is one of those events, along with the Ill List in December that makes Modesto special. Thanks Sam and Ruhi for making this happen.
Finally, as we got ready to send this issue to the printer, I was informed that I had been selected by the American Legion Post 74 as “Citizen of the Year”. I can’t begin to tell you how honored I am to receive this and look forward to the event on August 3 and sharing it with my family and friends. I am in awe of the people that have been awarded before me, and the sense of pride, and having this responsibility to be someone that can lead by example is not lost on me. We all really need to be as good as we can, serve others, lift people up, and work hard and give back to make our city a place we want to live in and hope that our children do too. So thank you from the bottom of my heart and I will continue to be a champion for the good in our community.
This is an extra special moment for me, as I was nominated by someone that I really have respected and admired for a long time. When I moved back to Modesto in 1996, I told my wife Becky that I really wanted to be a person like Al Menshew. His knowledge of history, interest in what happens, his volunteerism, friendhips and his pride in his community is something I connected with. Not only did he mentor me as a friend of our family, he later tapped me to take over his role in announcing the 4th of July Parade, one of Modesto’s great traditions. This parade is a very special event for our family and the pride I feel in carrying on Al’s traditions is great. Maybe someday I will learn how to properly pronounce the names of the various Clamper and Shriner royalty titles. Thank you Al, I hope I have made you proud.
I hope to see you out at the Modesto 4th of July Parade and out and about at all of the many great things happening this month. Whether indoors or outdoors, there is something for everyone to do this July.
I created ModestoView as a place to celebrate the good, promote out local business and showcase the cool things that make our Modesto USA special and I thank you for being part of this. I love our traditions and hope ModestoView can be one of those too. See you out and about and I hope you have a grand and glorious 4th and July.
Thank you,
Chris Murphy, Founder and Publisher – ModestoView
chrism@modestoview.com<mailto:chrism@modestoview.com>
