Vive Les Etats Unis

.....Today is the 4th of July, a day when our independence from the tyranny of King George III of England was declared.  I have never read a document as soul shearing as The Declaration of Independence is. Its birth occurred when the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five to write a document declaring the colonies' independence.  Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Ben Franklin turned out to be the principal authors of this revered and deathless article of poetry and patriotism.  Adams insisted that Jefferson do the writing and the rest would edit it.  Jefferson objected and said that Adams was a higher member of Congress, but Adams said that Jefferson was more revered than he, and a much better writer.  And so he did.  It has been 236 years since The Declaration was written, and we must wonder if the five considered what America would be like in our own time, and whether or not the Union survived.  Indeed it did. And so we must wonder what America would be like 236 years from now and whether or not patriotism and country would survive on all the July 4ths to come. 

.....Adlai Stevenson once said that ",,,when an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea.  He means that he loves an inner air, and inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self respect". 

.....Self respect and freedom were the goals of the Colonies in 1776 and Jefferson sought to achieve it for all of us, and for all of time, with the incredible Declaration of Independence when he wrote, "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."  I don't know about the "created equal" part.  Just take a look at and watch LaBron James.  I wish I were as equal as he.  Nevertheless, we do live now with a greater measure of acceptance of fellow Americans of every breed and color and religion than ever before.  In the name of achieving the goals that Jefferson cites, it is time to put aside our partisan differences and work together in order to serve our country and save our country with declarations of Patriotism so that rich and poor can live a life of liberty and the pursuit of happiness like all Americans seek and are entitled to by virtue of the Fathers of our Country.