When in the course of Human events, it becomes necessary….

Oh, give me a home where the fireworks fly over head, and rockets fly past your eyes and blow up in your face and seldom is seen a clear spot in the sky and you hope that the sky is not cloudy today. Home, home bar-be-cues, the burgers, the dogs and the beer; with a full tank of propane or a big bag of charcoal, you hope the sky is not cloudy today. Old glory is out, in the breeze it should fly, until the sun it does set, even if it rains I am sure that we’ll survive and the day will still be happy indeed.
Give me fireworks, lots fireworks; lots open space around, to blow them off. Give us sparklers, lots of sparklers; a lot of open space around, to wave them around. It could be there, over there, but not where there are people; to keep us safe. Do you think that it really, really matters to us where we go just as long as we can do it; just as long as we can?
Now that I have you wondering just what I’m on while writing this I’ll tell you the above two short paragraphs will be better read if you read the first to the tune of Home On the Range and the second to Don’t Fence Me In. And for the benefit of those that have never heard either of those two songs tough… no not really see me later.
Here we are again at the birthday of our nation the day we told King George to kiss off and go pick on someone else. I usually figure that those that are and will read this have a least a working knowledge of the history of this country. Unfortunately, after hearing some of the reports from the radio I am led to believe that it’s not necessarily so, therefore this year I will spend a few lines and remind us that know and educate those that don’t.
The feeling about the sanctity of our Independence Day may have best been expressed in a quotation from the Virginia Gazette on July 18th, 1777:
“Thus may the 4th of July, that glorious and ever memorable day, be celebrated through America, by the sons of freedom, from age to age till time shall be no more. Amen and Amen.”
Now I know that fathers day was last month, but I think that a little fathers day admiration is still needed this day, this day that the ‘founding fathers’ finally got everyone well most everyone to agree on just how to flip off King George, and tell him where he could stuff his over taxation or as they called it taxation with out representation. How many times have you heard the story of our break from England? More times than you can count? More times than you want to count?
That being the case I will spare you the long drawn out version and get right the important stuff. On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry from Virginia was accorded the well-deserved honor of introducing the all important bill before Congress:
“That these united Colonies are, and ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance from the British crown, and than all political connection between America and State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved…”
The bill was adopted on July 2 the formal act that dissolved the ties with England. Two days later, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was ratified the American Revolution became a reality.
All of this had occurred with some of the delegates to the Congress not even present; New York, for example, did not even vote on the resolution until July 9th.
Even more interesting is the fact that not a single signature was appended to the Declaration on July 4th. While most of the fifty-six names were in place by early August, one signer, Thomas McKean, did not actually sign the Declaration until 1781. Nevertheless, July 4th was the day singled out to mark the event of the United States establishing itself as a nation.
I read somewhere, and as you all know how great my memory is please don’t ask me were it was, that King George had begun to give in to the pressures of the colonies and was about to make a proposal where the colonies would have more say in their rule, the only problem; the Declaration of Independence. It would seem that the intelligence that the Lee brothers had was a bit slow in arriving to the second congress or perhaps it was faulty, either way a case was made and a war begun. Then again maybe they didn’t care, or the congress was just lying about how they were being treated by the King… hmmm makes you wonder doesn’t it. Could there have been another way, a better way, from under the rule of King George who knows for sure all I know is that in the end we were alone and a new country was born. Delegates of the second congress spent days as they argued about the wording trying to do their best to flip the finger to George. It would seem that not everyone of the original colonies were jumping at the chance to sign this piece of paper judging by the late signing of Mr. McKean.
Had the bill been brought out and offered up to a popular vote would it have turned out the same who knows? Those of the second Continental Congress were appointed by the people of their respective states to represent there needs and wishes and in turn pass those on to George. Imagine a group of Congressmen that actual did the work that they were sent to do I mean how often does that happen. It is believed that nearly two thirds of the colonists were either loyalists, or they just wanted to be left alone and didn’t care who or what kind of government there was as long as they could do what ever they wanted, while just one third wanted to be free of England. I personally don’t buy it at least not the two thirds one third idea, considering that nearly every one of those living in the colonies at the time were there for freedoms and then by the time you factor in all of those that were sent here to serve their jail time as some type of servitude and you get a much different picture. Then again I doubt that they had much say in what went on anyway.
On this day our Day of Independence I want everyone reading this to sit down for a second look to your children, if you have them, look to your parents, if they are still among us, look to your grandparents, your brothers and sisters, your nieces and nephews, your Aunts and Uncles, your cousins, look to your neighbors, your friends and their families and see if you see the same thing that I do. Can you see it, can you see what I’m looking at can you see it the way I do.
So, to you my friends and family and family of friends take this day and remember our founding fathers, remember their words. Remember that this country was founded on one main purpose, freedom. Remember those men that first stuck out their necks so that we could live the way we do. Stand up raise your glass and offer up a toast to all of the men and yes the women that stood up and said ENOUGH! Enjoy your day have a picnic grill up some burgers, dogs, or whatever you have that sounds good on a grill open up some chips and dip, break out the sparklers and wait for night time so that you can sit down and watch the sky fill up with explosions of lights and color.