Systems of energy fluxes

In several weeks we shall be into two important events, the Fourth of July and hurricane season. These two periods of time share some characteristics; for one they both occur yearly in the summer. For another, they both represent in a fashion brief, punctuated periods of energy flux outside the normal everyday weather.
To explain let me first describe a night last year that hurricane Ike paid our town a visit. The weather was wonderful. It was calm. We watch eagerly the local weatherman predict with charts and maps the multitude of course for which the storm could take. We watch as it ran over Cuba and then turned with its eye on Houston. My wife, a mountain girl from the west, said “Its not going to hit us?” and then, “Where did you move me?” Around 4 pm the air grew heavy and the clouds looked strange; and though most of us couldn’t tell you where the wind usually comes from, we could all tell it was not from the usual source. It had a new source, a high-energy system generating its own power. Night drew on, the winds increased, the rain filled the air, and all mixed in a cacophony. Many hundreds died that night, power was lost in some areas for weeks, gasoline lines formed, basic needs lines formed, all from that night. The night past. Morning shown like every other day, but life below changed.
Time is relative. Systems of abnormal energy tend to states of equilibrium. The storm subsided in one day, we enjoyed many days of sun and good weather.
In three weeks we shall hang our flags, we shall watch the fireworks, but shall we think of revolution? Shall we think of sacrifice? I am a son of the American Revolution. This revolution was brief in relative time. It was high energy. A band of men, normal men, revolted against the notion that one man is greater than another, that we are endowed with divine rights. We can choose for ourselves. A novel notion, that spurred a great war, but brought in years of peace. Our founders brought us to a state of equilibrium by eliminating fluxes of energy in the system caused by the corruption of a government dictating the lives of its people.
I think that despite our problems, we shall in three weeks time have more honor to raise our flag than any other nation. Our nation has been a beacon of light to others hoping to change their home regimes. Though there be many voices which would excuse our nation, which would be embarrassed at our culture, I shall not. My Grandfather fought the socialist regime in Germany in 1945 and spent 8 months in a prisoner of war camp. My Uncle was a marine in Vietnam and fought in the Tet offensive. And while these men in my family suffered from their experiences in war, their bravery and sacrifice give me humility that I am related to such greatness, and that my relatives fought on the right side.
So though there be storms ahead, they pass quickly in the night. Though wars and tyranny seemingly last long, they too are out-of-equalibrium systems and shall past in the night. America is here, so long as we remember the revolution- Viva La Revolucion de America!