Happy Birthday America…..Love FanBoyWonder
Two hundred and thirty-one years ago today, a group of gentlemen, Englishmen by lineage but American in spirit gathered secretly in the city of Philadelphia to do what only a few years earlier would have been unthinkable.
The men from the 13 colonies literally risked signing their lives away (the penalty for high treason against the Crown was death by hanging) by placing their mark on a carefully crafted, politically explosive document that would quite literally change the world.
Composed primarily by Virginia plantation owner and future President Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence was unprecedented in the scope of its content and righteous in its tone.
At the time the Declaration was drafted to justify and explain to the world the Founding Fathers’ reason for revolution but their words quickly took on a greater meaning and it became the soul of our nation.
“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.”
[To read the full text of the Declaration, click here www.constitution.org/usdeclar.htm.]
Out of these words was born the United States of America. In more than two-and-a-quarter centuries, the US of A has risen from puny colonial upstart to a global super power and leader of the free world.
We have endured two world wars, one civil war, economic depression and the threat of nuclear Armageddon….and we have done it as Americans.
While our ideals have often exceeded our actions, America represents something unique to the world. Quite simply, America is the freest nation on Earth.
However, our latest and greatest challenge is at this moment in front of us as America seeks to fight and defend against a shapeless, nation-less enemy that would destroy us and the idea that is America. Yet the challenge comes not just in combating our fanatical foes but also in preserving the freedoms and liberties that make up the core, the D.N.A. of America’s greatness.
For if those are lost, the terrorists win after all.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” –Benjamin Franklin
We The People, who are the beneficiaries of the sacrifices our ancestors made time and again, owe it to them and to ourselves to take a moment between the parades and the fireworks shows and the automobile clearance sales today to remember the ideals on which our country was founded and perhaps to strive just a little harder to live up to the ideal that is America.
To our readers, FanBoyWonder wishes you and yours a happy and safe Independence Day.
God Bless America!
The men from the 13 colonies literally risked signing their lives away (the penalty for high treason against the Crown was death by hanging) by placing their mark on a carefully crafted, politically explosive document that would quite literally change the world.
Composed primarily by Virginia plantation owner and future President Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence was unprecedented in the scope of its content and righteous in its tone.
At the time the Declaration was drafted to justify and explain to the world the Founding Fathers’ reason for revolution but their words quickly took on a greater meaning and it became the soul of our nation.
“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.”
[To read the full text of the Declaration, click here www.constitution.org/usdeclar.htm.]
Out of these words was born the United States of America. In more than two-and-a-quarter centuries, the US of A has risen from puny colonial upstart to a global super power and leader of the free world.
We have endured two world wars, one civil war, economic depression and the threat of nuclear Armageddon….and we have done it as Americans.
While our ideals have often exceeded our actions, America represents something unique to the world. Quite simply, America is the freest nation on Earth.
However, our latest and greatest challenge is at this moment in front of us as America seeks to fight and defend against a shapeless, nation-less enemy that would destroy us and the idea that is America. Yet the challenge comes not just in combating our fanatical foes but also in preserving the freedoms and liberties that make up the core, the D.N.A. of America’s greatness.
For if those are lost, the terrorists win after all.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” –Benjamin Franklin
We The People, who are the beneficiaries of the sacrifices our ancestors made time and again, owe it to them and to ourselves to take a moment between the parades and the fireworks shows and the automobile clearance sales today to remember the ideals on which our country was founded and perhaps to strive just a little harder to live up to the ideal that is America.
To our readers, FanBoyWonder wishes you and yours a happy and safe Independence Day.
God Bless America!
posted by FanBoyWonder at 3:21 AM
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