Independence Day

Today we celebrate the founding of our nation, our independence from the tyrannical rule of England.

We celebrate with beer and barbecues, fireworks and big sales and holiday pay, paying little mind to the rights and responsibilities that independence affords us.

Consider these words of the Declaration of Independence, the framework 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.

The consent of the governed you say?

The approval rating of the President and the United States Congress does not reflect a people who consent to the decisions and policies being carried out by their elected government.

I wonder if Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness means enough to the people of this country for them to exercise their right to alter it, allowing their voices to be heard.

It saddens me to see veterans, who fought for this country's freedom, back when that was a soldier's mission, now ashamed of the failures of their leadership, ashamed of their fellow countrymen's unwillingness to speak out and frustrated that their voices are unheard against the drone of the lobby machine.

The Declaration of Independence included a long list of the King's slights to the colonies, including those listed below:

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation.

Modernize the language a bit and the words are eerily akin to those found in many of today's newspapers.

If our forefathers could come together to stand toe to toe with the King of Great Britain, surely we can come together to ensure that our government, which was founded and supported on the backs and lives of the American people, follows the will of the people who elect them.

This July 4th, make sure your voice is heard.