Eleven score and 15 years ago today....

... "our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."


So, wishing someone a Happy 4th of July is like wishing someone a Happy 16th of October. It really doesn't mean anything and everyone in the world has one. 


THIS is Independence Day! 


When brave men put their lives on the line and "for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."  Men, who were bold enough to put into writing a declaration of Freedom and Liberty never before nor never after seen.  Men who emphatically agreed to reject their colonization and to break free as the thirteen United States. Men who agreed upon the following language:

"The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

 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.

...

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

We need to find a new generation of George Washingtons, Benjamin Franklins, John Adamses, James Madisons, Thomas Jeffersons, John Witherpoons, etc. in order to reclaim the ideals of Independence, Liberty and the true meaning of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" for ALL people... where we all get to choose our paths and accept responsibility for them... where we abolish the ridiculous notion of "equal outcome;" Where the government does not encroach on the rights of any person from attempting their dream so long as they "do no harm" to others along the way; Where the governed are in charge of the government; Where the system of checks and balances put in place with shared power of the three branches of government has not been breached, but is respected and upheld; Where those in government come from private life to truly SERVE and then return to private life without ever drawing from the public coffers; Where corruption borne of monies used to buy false loyalties of the legislators is eradicated; Where once again we are a government "of the people, by the people and for the people" and that we do not "perish from the earth."