Freedom. What does it mean to y ou?
As we prepare to celebrate July Fourth, the day we set aside to honor those who had the courage to stand up and demand freedom from their own government, it is appropriate we remember their vision to form a country where the people actually rule.
Before the Founding Fathers penned and signed the Declaration of Independence there was no United States of America. We were 13 English colonies taxed without representation, forced to send our money to a king who ruled from afar.
When the dust settled in Philadelphia in 1776, 56 brave men told their government they had enough and were declaring independence. No longer would their government exercise control over people who had no voice.
Knowing war would surly follow, Adams, Jefferson and Washington, along with others gathered in Independence Hall, clearly believed freedom was worth the greatest sacrifice. They set into motion the revolutionary events that followed and nearly six years later, this upstart little nation had defeated the powerful British Army and had won its independence.
Is it even possible to imagine the amount of courage it took for these 56 men to put their names down on a document saying they would no longer adhere to the laws of the land? They would create their own laws giving freedom to the people.
Since then countless Americans have fought and died for the freedoms we cling to so dearly. For that reason alone we owe it to them, to ourselves and to future generations of Americans that we too exhibit the courage to stand up and fight for our freedoms.
As our federal government grows beyond its own capacity to manage itself, we are faced with losing our freedoms one by one. It is spread over time and has little impact on society as a whole, but nevertheless our own government, federal, state and local continue to nip away at our ability to make choices.
Ask any motorcyclist who wants to ride without a helmet. Ask anyone who prefers to not wear a seatbelt every time. Better yet, ask a business owner what it is like for Big Brother to say it's illegal for the owner to allow smoking inside their own building. In some states you are not free to use a cell phone while driving. And in some crowds, don't even bring up the topic of our right to bear arms.
These aren't earthshaking restrictions, but if we continue to allow our own government to nip away at our freedoms, and raise the taxation on the fruits of our labor, we'll find ourselves in the situation our Founding Fathers felt they were in.
Freedom in this country is left up to the people, or at least up to the people we elect to represent us. That requires us to be responsible and informed voters, and to remember the building blocks upon which this nation was built.
So, this Fourth of July, let's celebrate our independence and honor those who had the vision of a free society. Let's stay true to their Declaration, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States of America. Let's keep the power with the people and demand from our government only those things we are unable to do on our own. Let's vow to never allow the hands of government to become so heavy they infringe on the freedoms we enjoy.
Fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, gravely ill Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter declining an invitation to attend a Washington D.C. Fourth of July celebration. In it he wrote;
“May it be to the world, what I believe it will be ... the signal of arousing men to burst the chains ... and to assume the blessings and security of self government. That form, which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or are opening, to the rights of man. ... For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”
Contact — greg.awtry@yorknewstimes.com
