Today while you are enjoying your families, grilling and chilling, take a moment to think. And when you think about this holiday and what it is all about you will realize that we do not celebrate July the 4th. We celebrate the fact that we declared our independence from the tyranny of English rule.
What we are celebrating is the fact that we declared our freedom. The historical fact that it occurred on July the 4th 1776 is trivial.
I am a firm believer that words mean things. I believe that the words we use spring from and shape our attitudes and actions.
Celebrating freedom would mean that we pause to reflect and revel in the fact that we are the lone bastion of individual freedom left in the world.
Celebrating freedom would mean that we would rejoice in the belief that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were revolutionary because they restricted the rights of government and codified the individual rights of all Americans.
Celebrating freedom would mean that we take reflect on how to protect those rights.
Pause to read these amazing words crafted so long ago.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.”
Is it possible that the Federal Government is rapidly becoming larger and more intrusive than King George ever was?
Some interesting quotes:
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” — Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania (1759)
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” — James Madison, Federalist no. 51.
Have a wonderful Holiday. And God Bless you for what you do every day to serve this nation.
