Tag Archives: Independence Day

Happy Birthday, America!

Happy INDEPENDENCE Day!

declaration-of-ndependence
Declaration of Independence
Photo Credit: The National Archives

A good day to refresh our memory of what the Declaration of Independence says…

Wishing all a peaceful and relaxing day as we celebrate the birth of our Nation. We live in the Land of the Free BECAUSE of the Brave. Thank you to all who serve, and have served, our country!

Happy Birthday, America!

1821 September 12. (Thomas Jefferson to John Adams).

“And even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and liberties of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them. In short, the flames kindled on the 4th. of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism. On the contrary they will consume those engines, and all who work them.”

The Declaration of Independence

In Congress, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.  Continue reading Happy Birthday, America!

Independence Day 2015

Hitting the big “6-0” earlier this year has had me wandering back in my mind to childhood memories…

In the early to mid-sixties Dad was stationed at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, in the great State, or as they call it, “Commonwealth”, of Massachusetts.

We’d have a BBQ and he would invite three or four of the younger Airmen, so far from home, over for food and fun.  A few of the neighbors would come over, too.  Continue reading Independence Day 2015