Happy Independence Day

(photo from:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/
Fourth_of_July_fireworks_behind_the_Washington_Monument,_1986.jpg/362px-Fourth_of_July_fireworks_behind_the_
Washington_Monument,_1986.jpg)

My husband sent me this email from a coworker of his, and I thought it pretty much perfectly summed up Independence Day. I "x-ed" out his last name for his privacy, but I hope you enjoy it.

Independence Day 2009

When the calendar page turned 233 years ago to July 4^th, the American colonies had been engaged in the American Revolutionary War for almost a year. Delegates from the Second Continental Congress had been meeting in Philadelphia to consider a declaration of independence from Great Britain due to grievances forced upon the colonies without fair representation. Drafted by a Committee of Five that included principal drafter Thomas Jefferson and founding fathers Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, a draft resolution was passed on July 2^nd with final wording approved on the 4^th. The words adopted that day became immortal and set our emerging nation apart from others in history, the most salient being:

We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal. And they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these, are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

We did not then, nor do we now, perfectly adhere to the moral standard so eloquently expressed. But over time the Declaration’s fundamental standard of the rights of man has steered our republic to do right and redress wrong. The signers of the document understood that an unshackled spirit of individual liberty would provide each of us citizens a ladder to climb above our beginnings and reach our dreams. Not all would, but anyone could.

As each man affixed his name to the Declaration, he signed his own death warrant as a traitor to the Crown. There was enormous risk that the loose coalition of states with more differences than similarities would not hold together against the greatest military power then existing. But the cry of freedom was more unifying than any motivation the peoples of England or their armies could evoke.

We have much to be grateful for and much to celebrate. Without arrogance, we must resist the current fashion of seeing ourselves only in the negative. No country has ever done so much for so many others, often without credit and seldom with reciprocity—we do so because it is our national character to seek liberty over repression. There are faults and inequities even now, but they are overshadowed by our unlimited possibilities as a united people with institutional respect for the individual.

Fly the flag proudly this Independence Day.

David XXXX

June 30, 2009

Y'all know how much I love our Country, and I plan to celebrate it today and what our forefathers gave to us so many years ago. I do hope you all have great celebrations and remember what those before us have sacrificed and given up to give us the American Dream and the freedoms we enjoy. Let's not throw it away!

We'll be off at a huge Tea Party, so I'll post pictures afterwards!