Tomorrow I plan to be sitting in a parking lot,
surround by a crowd of people, enveloped in a cloud of bug spray and a sea of
lawn chairs. Tomorrow I plan to walk in
a parade, listen to music, watch fireworks, and celebrate July Fourth. This is not a day grounded in some flippant
summer celebration, it’s one based in a purpose. In the midst of these wonderful lawn chaired crowds
having fun, it is easy to forget the purpose behind the celebration. So, I want to pause with my celebratory
activities for a moment to remember those founders of what would become the
United States of America.
Volumes of information have been written on
those who started with a dream and a hypothetical situation. We now celebrate the reality of what was the
hypothetical, the blessing that came of the sacrifice. These are the founders that defied the
British government by forming a new government.
It is also the time to remember the founders made of farmers, towns-people,
craftsman, merchants, and the future citizens of the country. It is a time to remember that this is the
celebration of a war fought, a war won.
It is a celebration to remember the sacrifices of those who crafted our
founding documents, searching their minds and hearts of such words as “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 the 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.” The words, such as “May
it be to the world, what I believe it will be ... the signal of arousing men to
burst the chains ... and to assume the blessings and security of
self-government. That form, which we have substituted, restores the free right
to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are
opened, or opening, to the rights of man. ... For ourselves, let the annual
return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an
undiminished devotion to them." Words of power, strength, and
purpose reflect an awareness of the importance of events that were at the heart
of them.
The words, the actions
that made them more than empty words, still ring with purpose and validity
today. The words and actions were those
of dreams, sacrifice, and putting the effort to change the hypothetical into
the new reality. We can still pull
national strength from these efforts, as we face new dreams, and make new
sacrifices. I challenge each of us in
the USA to realize that effective citizenship in such a place demands an
awareness and continual seeking for future growth.
Happy Independence Day!
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