By all observations, it was a peaceful day.

The annual residential party held on Lakeside Circle caused a minor "war of words" over the Fourth of July weekend. The organizers of the celebration, this year called the Freedom Festival, said the purpose for the annual party was to celebrate the Fourth of July and get to know neighbors. All residents of Lakeside Circle and the Fieldstone Lake Association and their friends were invited. However, this year’s Freedom Festival invitation <pictured above> brought out the political activists.

The invitation is a “design revision” of the original 1969 Woodstock Festival & Concert. Shortly after the posting of the public invitation for the Freedom Festival celebration, activist(s) posted their own sign. The second sign questioned the “1 Day of Peace” reference contained on the public invitation by stating, among other things, “No Peace”. Many of those who attended the Freedom Festival understood the intent of the second sign but felt the posting was mis-directed. One of the Freedom Festival organizers, Blake Godard, said; “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the party we put on here is a celebration of this country’s independence and is a great chance to get reacquainted with our neighbors. What ticks me off is that this pseudo-activist used our well-intended celebration as their political platform. We all know there’s a war on and that we have security forces all over the globe, fighting and dieing. We support the troops but give me a break, if you want to make a political statement, post your sign in your own yard. In the name of their own agenda they felt their negative message was more important than a positive one and attempted to distract from our effort to celebrate a national holiday. To me that amounts to nothing more than vandalism. On July 3rd the world was not at peace, but on Lakeside Circle our Freedom Festival allowed us to celebrate the holiday, and put the rest of the world on the back burner, if only for a few hours”.

While Freedom Festival organizers were disappointed with the timing and placement of the second sign, they insisted that it was any person(s) right to do so. “To disallow another their voice would hypocritical and run contrary to the ideas which brought us to the Freedom Festival”. Organizers were referring to an incident in which an unknown person(s) defaced the second sign.