Do We Have Anything To Celebrate?

Published by Richard Bernard, July 4th, 2014

Today is the 4th of July - Independence Day. A time when families come together to BBQ and enjoy firework displays, but I believe few understand the deeper meaning of the day.

Many, if not most, believe that we celebrate because the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776. Actually the document was not signed until August 2nd and the British did not receive it until November of the same year.

So what did occur on the July 4, 1776? The Continental Congress gave the final approval of the wording of that sacred document. The shots fired at Lexington and Concord one year previous and the approval of the Declaration of Independence the following year was the start of a long road covered in blood and great sacrifice ending on September 17, 1787 with the signing of the Constitution, four years after the treaty with England was signed.

The people of the new nation gave little thought about the 4th of July until after the War of 1812. For the first several decades following 1776 there was disputes about the Constitution; some feeling it was too strongly worded. But a few years after the War of 1812 the importance of our freedom become apparent and eventually the holiday was established.

Today we celebrate our independence in the 18th century from a tyrannical government that imposed taxes, established laws and made other decisions without the consent of the people. The event that brought the conflict to the firing of shots was due to the British trying to confiscate the citizenry of their weapons and ammunition.

Our founding Fathers were great men who understood the meaning of tyranny and what brings it about. They did all they could to establish a government that would allow people freedom while establishing a rule of law under the necessary evil of a government. Their greatest fear was our government could also become tyrannical. They understood that our government would not last and our freedoms extinguished if the elected leaders were not of strong moral character.

Over the last 100 years are freedoms have been eroding. Men and women wanting power pass laws that give them increasingly more power. Our Federal government has become tyrannical and oppressive; it has entered every facet of our lives. It is now to the point that they want to start attacking and rewriting the Bill of Rights. Lies and obfuscation have become the norm.

We have entered the age of ideologues; politicians and organizations bent on removing what freedoms we have left all in the name of knowing what is better for us. Obamacare was passed despite that 65% of the population did not want it. Politicians signed it without every reading it. We were told we could learn what is in it after it was signed into law.

The progressive liberal movement is destroying what we have and what so many fought to maintain.

Even a casual study of history and a look at the road we are on makes it clear we are headed to ruin. In addition, the very moral fibre of this country is in decline. But that is not all. It appears to me that the populace is more concerned with the World Cup than what is taking place in the Federal and State governments as they continue to dictate what we are to do, see and hear.

Today is the 4th of July - Independence Day. It should also be a day of prayer, asking and hoping that the people of this country will wake up and become involved, stop voting for career politicians and let those in power know that we will not take it any more, and we do not agree with the fundamental changes that are occurring daily in our beloved country.

Today is the 4th of July - Independence Day. If I celebrate anything today it will be to give thanks to those great men who established a form of government and thereby creating the greatest nation in the history of mankind. A nation of freedoms; the freedoms to be. We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. It is to that I will celebrate while praying that we will return to the roots that established this great country, and doing all I can to see that it happens.