What Today Means to Me

I am trying to do a proper Fourth of July post.

I don’t know exactly where to start, or where it will end.

I guess the beginning is always a good place to start.

In the early summer of 1776 a band of men gathered in Philadelphia. They had determined that the cost of the government in England far outweighed the benefit of it. Some wanted to separate from England, others want to reconcile. None wanted to continue the way things were. A committee was formed to draft a declaration. Thomas Jefferson was a part of that committee, and wrote the essentials of the Declaration. Ben Franklin, another member of the committee, had a go at editing first, and then the entire Congress argued for days over ever line; every word; every comma.

During my research for this post I found a website dedicated solely to the Declaration of Independence (http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/); a very fascinating site. It not only covers the document itself, but the men who signed it, and what it cost them personally for the Declaration and the ensuing war for Independence.

We all know the Declaration exists, and probably have a vague idea what it says. The first part is the explanation of why the colonists have standing to press for redress for their grievances, and the last part is the list of charges against King George III. Some of their grievances against the government were positively addressed when our constitution was written in 1789. Where the Declaration has its most relevant power is, I think, here:

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.

The question today is this: do we think that our current government has become “destructive of (our) ends” of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness? I think a fair number of us would holler “Hell YES!” as a response. But, I digress.

The Revolution was a long, hard fought, difficult war. Again we know the basics. Washington crossing the Delaware; Battle of Cowpens; Valley Forge; Yorktown. But our learning of the War is condensed to a couple of days every year in school, for the most part. The Battle of Concord was April 19th, 1775, the start of open hostilities. The Boston Tea Party was a year and a half earlier, in December of 1773. Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, the recognized end of hostilities. But the Treaty of Paris wasn’t ratified until September 3, 1783, and the last British troops finally left New York in November of that same year.

For perspective, assume today is July 4, 1776. The Boston Tea Party was in 2006, and the Battle of Lexington was in 2007. Cornwallis won’t surrender until 2014.

And yet, those men were willing to take on the battle. We will have 3 elections for the complete House of Representatives; elections for all three classes of Senators and a Presidential election between now and then. And these men had no idea how what they had started would turn out. As the Declaration says:

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.

Will we need to go that far? I hope not. What will our next revolution cost? Hopefully just time. And a little Money.

Time to educate ourselves, and then others. We need to proselytize liberty from tyranny. We need a door to door and person to person type of preaching about our loss of liberty with the fervor of the recently converted or newly ordained. Know the facts, and spread them. Find out what was in the ‘Stimulus Bill’; find out what is in the ‘Cap and Trade’.

Money to support the candidates who agree with us. I have always said we don’t need to throw all of the bums out. My guy is pretty good, just throw the OTHER bums out. But I bet even Henry Waxman’s and Barney Frank’s constituents say the same thing, God help ‘em. And my guy is not perfect, just better than the rest. Let’s throw ALL the bums out, including mine (sorry Geoff; but you’ve had 3 terms, now go find honest work). It will be easier to dump McConnell; he’s had 24 years to reform Washington; I am starting to believe Washington reformed him.

As I said before I think Sarah Palin may have fired the first shot of the new Revolution yesterday; who of us will rally to her call?

It may not seem that way, but I mean this post to honor the patriots who pledged their Lives Fortunes and sacred Honor to the cause of Liberty 233 years ago. What would be the better honor? Fly a few flags, drink some beer and shoot a few fireworks, or start to retake our country from a modern George III ethos? An over-reaching, over-controlling, over-taxing Federal government. Or are you being governed just as you wish?

A safe, happy and fun filled Fourth to you all!