I’m going to CommunityNext in San Jose this weekend, put on by my awesome friend Noah Kagan, who writes over at OkDork (like I said almost 2 years ago: read his blog). 

It’s got an impressive speaker list.  And if you want to go, only three tickets left on eBay!

Email me if you’re going: scotthurff AT gmail (that’s dot com).

It’s really easy to get caught up in all the negativity and bad press about Congress, the President, the courts, gas prices, health care, the war on terrorism, etc. etc….but I like to take the 4th of July and realize again that we’re lucky to live in the United States.

I love America.  I love it even with the mistakes this country has made and the crazy situations we sometimes find ourselves living and working in — but we always find a way out and a way to persevere while preserving this great experiment we call the Republic.

Like I said, we don’t always get it right.  But over time, we self-correct.  And we’re better off for it.

I like thinking of the United States as the best startup story in the history of startups (I’m happy to see that Eric Olson of Feedburner both thought and wrote about it; check it out) — going from nothing to the quintessential innovator in the areas of liberty, independence, civil rights, economic freedom and projecting these ideas throughout the world.

Our founding leaders didn’t come up with all these ideals themselves.  They realized them.  They put them into the wild and gave it a shot.  Can you imagine the guts it takes to start a country? 

So if you have 30 seconds, just think about it.  Where this country came from and how great the story really is.  We’re blessed to live here — and we’re blessed that we can change it to embody our own ideals.

Some more tidbits:

• A desktop background I made on the 4th of July back in 2003
• An essay I wrote in 2005 about America