On Independence Day

The sons of Patrick Tierney worked for the Fore River Shipyards in Quincy, Massachusetts for many years. (More on that later.)

The 4th of July is a good day to read this entry in the Fore River Log, a publication put out by the shipyard for its workers. It might have been read by John, Joseph and Leo Tierney, all sons of Patrick Tierney, who worked for the shipyard in the year 1918.

Your country is all that surrounds you, all that has reared and nourished you, everything that you have loved. That land you see, those houses, those trees, those smiling girls that pass, that is your country. The laws that protect you, the bread which rewards your toil, the words you exchange, the joy and the sadness which come to you from men and the things amid which you live, that is your country! The little chamber where you once saw your mother, the recollections she has left you, the earth where she reposes, that is your country. You see it, and you breathe it everywhere! I imagine, my son, your rights and your duties, your affections and your needs, your recollections and your gratitude, all united under one name, and that name will be "MY COUNTRY!"

~ Emil Souvestre, French author, soldier and patriot, as published in Fore River Log, 1918