Reflecting On The 4th

Just consider the risks.

Creating a new nation. A nation that was to be built, not around the conventional systems, but with radical new ideas.

A government that was restrained. A government that was based on consent of the governed, not divine right or military might. A nation where the individual had rights, and the government was limited. They wanted a new enlightened land, where the rule of law, not passion or popular opinion, would dominate. There was no state religion, people could worship as they pleased. There was to be no King or hereditary rule, the leaders of this land would come from the people of the land.

There were great personal risks. They were traitors to their mother country. They would have died torturous deaths, their families ruined. They were committed, create a new land or die.

After the rule they had lived under, they wanted to make sure the policing power of the government was limited. The new government was expressed forbidden to use many of the tactics that the British government tried to use against the rebels. The individual, not the nation was to be served, and when the nation failed the individual, then the people of the land had not only the right, but the responsibility to refresh the tree of liberty.

230 years later it appears most of the people of this land have forgotten the reasons this land was founded, and the risks involved in it's creation. We are eager to trade our freedom for security. We willing abdicate our responsibility, and accept the erosion of our constitutionally provided protections. We have created myths that confuse our history, and are turning our back on reason.

Let us hope that we, as a nation, develop an appreciation for what our founders were trying to develop. A land, with self rule, and guided by the concepts of liberty and reason.


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4th of July