Today is the 4th of July, 2023. I’m rerunning the post I wrote a year ago. In my opinion, this is the more important day of the year for Americans. And what I wrote last year is worth repeating.
I believe July 4th is even more important than religious holidays because a free citizen of America has the opportunity to practice religion in any way, shape, or form he or she chooses. Without the freedom America still affords, we wouldn’t have religious freedom.
If you paid attention the last few years (especially the last year) and you care, you can see the danger freedom in America is in. We citizens, who just want to live in peace, raise our families, enjoy the life America’s freedom offers, trust our elected officials, and make our world a better place, are constantly being riled up in one form or another. I don’t intend this to become a political post, but there is an unavoidable, inherent element of politics in the subject of freedom. I’ll just let you read what I wrote last year.
July 4, 2022
America celebrates. Really celebrates. I honestly don’t know or haven’t yet heard of anyone, regardless of political persuasion, race, color, religion, sex, gender, education level, social media status, occupation, or any of the hundred other things that divide us in this country saying they aren’t going to take the holiday offered and relax and enjoy the day designated to celebrate the birth of the United States of America. There probably are a few, but I don’t know of them.
Today is a good day to read the Declaration of Independence which started it all, and the Constitution, with its adjunct Bill of Rights (the Bill of Rights are the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution). The Constitution remains the Supreme Law of the land. I’ve linked them on their names above for your convenience.
Randy and I have good friends, a couple, who identify on the opposite end of the “political” spectrum than we identify. We have a lot of interests in common and there’s no good reason to poke the bear, so we take care not to talk often about current political events. When we have though, we are able to have calm, civil discussion about some of the events taking place in America.
Yesterday we went out to dinner and she and I talked a bit about the reversal of the Roe vs Wade decision. This hot button issue yielded a rational conversation where we both have strong convictions but were able express our opinions, yet still agree to disagree without ruining our friendship. We both acknowledge that our individual beliefs are legitimate and heartfelt for the reasons we stated and that neither side won or lost as the federal Supreme Court decision to let each state decide for its citizens leaves a path for both pro-choice and pro-life advocates in this vast country. I tell you that only because we also both agreed that our country would be so much better off if our deeply divided country got back to actually discussing issues with each other calmly and rationally, and then working together to find common ground. In truth, there’s more agreement between people than media (main stream and social) would have us believe.
It reminds me of a recent social media meme I ran across….
If you collect 100 black ants and 100 fire ants and put them in a glass jar nothing will happen. But if you take the jar, shake it violently and leave it sit again, the ants will start killing each other.
Red believes black is the enemy, while black believes red is the enemy. The real enemy is who shook the jar.
About 10 years ago I got interested in whether or not the mindset of the people during the time before the American Revolution was similar to what I saw developing then in America. I started reading history books about the American Revolution. That led to an intense interest and study of history, and to a bucket list item to read a biography of every American president, in chronological order. I wanted not so much to learn about the presidents, but about the development and history of this great nation we live in.
What I discovered is that our Founding Fathers were scholars who studied history and classic philosophy. They didn’t have as much “entertainment” as we do now to distract them from becoming wise, knowledgeable, and educated men. They LEARNED from history. They knew there is ALWAYS someone shaking the jar of humanity. So, fed up with Mother England controlling their lives from afar, they did everything in their power to design a new country. The founding documents they agreed on were created to endure and help triumph over the jar shakers.
Jar shakers are pretty darn smart too, though, and over time found ways to circumvent, disregard, or pervert those founding documents which were, and still are, the Supreme Law of the Land.
I urge you to invest an hour or two of your time left on planet earth to read (and understand) those documents I linked above. They were intended to ensure that you (if you are a citizen of the United States of America) always have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They were designed to ensure that you (a citizen of the USA) keep the rights endowed by your Creator (NOT the government, and as stated in the Declaration) and that the government never has more power to run your life than you do.
The United States of America was constructed to ensure that citizens are sovereign, which means they have power and authority over themselves. Nowhere, absolutely nowhere, does the Constitution allow government to be sovereign over citizens. The Founding Fathers strove to safeguard citizen sovereignty by creating a representative republic, not a democracy. The difference between the two is the Constitution. These are often confused, but the Constitution, the rule of law in the United States, ensures the people’s independence.
One thing our friends and we do agree on is that all of us want a lot less federal government in our lives. Going back to the original intent of the Constitution would help achieve that end. And that would be cause for celebration 365 days of the year.
P.S. Randy and I are both Air Force veterans. We took oaths “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” That oath doesn’t have an expiration date. Like in marriage, you really don’t know what you’re getting into when you make those vows. After studying history, civics, and those timeless founding documents for more than 10 years, that oath to defend the Constitution is more real to me than it’s ever been. I will still defend it, and the freedom it affords, as long as I draw breath. But my weapon is now education and truth.
P.P.S. (2023) Truth is being revealed. I pray justice will be done.
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