Independence Day!!!!!
With all of the media barrage from our 24 hour news cycle. With all the beating of the anti-American drums from abroad and within our own borders these days. America stands strong. There is no country on the face of this planet that offers opportunity and the realization of dreams like the United States Of America. The long fight against tyranny and kingdoms and the result of the lives lived and lives lost by our ancestors brought us to the moment in the beautiful portrait above. The signing of our Declaration of Independence. Brilliant men like Jefferson and Adams and all the eternal names attached to freedom and that document, had envisioned a great America. They saw the big picture. We can argue on what the forefathers had intended, but they did intend for an America to thrive in freedom and to be the champion of that freedom. That is exactly what we have been, and continue to be. We have taken our blessings in this Declaration of Independence and shared them with the world.
On the grand scale of civilized human existence, with all the wondrous history that our world has given us. The United States of America is truly an infant on the world stage, yet in these short two centuries we have shaped and influenced the world like no other country in world history. We have fought off the world's greatest tyrants and have beat back the most horrendous of evils. All in the name of freedom. Freedom...A word we tend to take for granted at times, but yet a word we cherish. Freedom, a word that is now handed to us by our birth in this great country. Yet freedom was dreamed of.. and fought for with everything we could muster and ultimately it was made reality by the brilliant men in the portrait above who set that freedom into motion with an ink well, a quill,... and a vision.
The Declaration Of Independence
From my good friend Wayne... This says it all.
This is why it's called "Independence Day"
THE 4TH OF JULY
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men
who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors,
and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army;
another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or
hardships of the Revolutionary War.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes,
and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.
Eleven were merchants,
nine were farmers and large plantation owners;
men of means, well educated,
but they signed the Declaration of Independence
knowing full well that the penalty would be death if
they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and
trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the
British Navy. He sold his home and properties to
pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British
that he was forced to move his family almost constantly.
He served in the Congress without pay, and his family
was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him,
and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer,
Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that
the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson
home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General
George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed,
and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed.
The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying.
Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill
were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests
and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his
children vanished.
So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and
silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.
Remember: freedom is never free!
I would not want to live anywhere else.....Happy Birthday America!
Thx LT............
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