Americans

Today The Herald-Mail is publishing a combined edition of The Morning Herald and The Daily Mail, to allow at least some of our employees to celebrate Independence Day. Through the years, July 4 has traditionally been marked with parades, family get-togethers and public concerts of patriotic music. Whatever form your celebration takes, we urge you to spend at least a small part of it reflecting on the origins of this holiday, and on what all Americans owe to those who decided that this collection of British colonies ought to be a country more than 200 years ago. Now by itself, that decision wasn't remarkable.

BEIJING (AP) -- The climb back to the top is nearly complete. One more win and U.S. basketball is golden again. The Americans ended their streak of final four flops and Argentina's hopes of an Olympic gold-medal repeat, starting fast and finishing strong in a 101-81 semifinal victory Friday. All that's left is what the U.S. players came for: a gold medal. The United States scored 21 of the first 25 points, got a big break when Argentina star Manu Ginobili reinjured his left ankle, and surged into its first gold-medal game in eight years.

BEIJING (AP) -- Losing for the first time since 2000, the U.S. softball team was denied a chance for a fourth straight gold medal Thursday, beaten 3-1 by Japan in the sport's last appearance in the Olympics for at least eight years -- and maybe for good. Yukiko Ueno, Japan's remarkably resilient right-hander, shut down the Americans and handed them their first loss since Sept. 21, 2000 at the Sydney Games. The U.S. had won 22 straight since then, most of them with outrageously lopsided scores.

When competition goes too far To the editor: Americans compete with each other for jobs, admission to college, parking spots, scholarships, prizes, awards and a good place in the grocery store checkout line. On the highway, Americans risk their necks and nervous systems to pass each other at higher and higher speeds on the road to nowhere. On Mondays, we check the paper to see which movie grossed the most money that weekend - or which athlete or CEO is the most highly paid.

Recently, I wrote a column in which I quoted an Episcopal canon who was speaking on the subject of “splintering” within Christian churches. The quote I used was: “Came looking for God; got church.” I applied that same thought - looking for something and getting (finding) something different - to a discussion about political parties. Several people liked that approach and asked me if it had other applications - positive or negative. The answer is yes. Most humans, and I can easily write about Americans from a point of view spanning nearly 50 years of personal observation, are always looking (searching)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve says consumers slashed their borrowing in July by the largest amount on record as job losses and uncertainty about the economic recovery prompted Americans to rein in their debt. Consumers ratcheted back their credit by a larger-than-anticipated $21.6 billion from June, the most on records dating to 1943. Economists expected credit to drop by $4 billion. July's retreat translated into an annualized drop of 10.4 percent. That was even sharper than the 7.4 percent annualized decline in June and the deepest cut since a 16.3 percent pace in June 1975.

Thumbs Up To the Watoto Children’s Choir of Uganda, whose members shared their smiles and voices during performances at several local churches last weekend. The children, many of them orphaned by violence and HIV/AIDS, provided a glimpse of hope for the future of Africa. Thumbs Up To Keedysville native and Shippensburg University junior Jonathan Miller, who took the initiative to organize a college fishing team. The Shippensburg University FLW College Fishing Team allows Miller and fellow students to pursue their hobby and an education at the same time.