The Father of our Freedoms

Picture it. A hot day in July. People standing around arguing, complaining, whining about taxes and governmental regulation and power. They complained about a recent war that they, the people living here in America didn't want. They complained about the ineffectual leadership of their executive branch and demanded action. They demanded resolutions. They were a diverse group from across all walks of life. Some were lawyers. Some were brewers. Some were farmers. Some were ne'er do wells. They came from all over. New York. Georgia. Virginia. Massachusetts.

Some of these men were very educated. Some of these men were barely educated at all. There were lecherous men and there were pious ones. These were simple people. They were average. They drank liquor. They smoked and chewed tobacco. They enjoyed the fruits of their labor.

And they were all brought together for one purpose... To complain.

To issue a complaint so powerful it would change the course of human events over the next two hundred years of Earth's history.

Around 50 men gathered together and decided the fate of a nation.

July 4th 1776.

233 years later, we are sitting here in America. Many of us feel disenfranchised. We're living in a system where taxes are being raised, unemployment is rising, and we're expected to feed ourselves on messages of 'hope' and 'change'. Change is not necessarily good.

The result of 2 wars against Great Britain, 2 World Wars, a Civil War, and multiple smaller wars like Vietnam and Korea and Desert Storm has been to create and protect freedoms for the United States of America. We've fought to defend freedoms like the right to a redress of grievances from the government. The right to peaceably assemble and protest.

So this July 4th, I and my father will be attending a protest. I've received mixed reactions from this. Some have said "Go for it!". Others have expressed taking offense.

One in particular puzzled me. Saying that I should be sitting home with the grill and fireworks like most of America celebrating the freedoms we've won in the past. As a member of a military family, he took offense that I'd be spending the 4th of July protesting the Obama government.

Nothing like resting on our laurels.

Now more than ever is a time that we should remain vigilant. The Democrats haven't been lax in the last 8 years and now the opposite must remain true if our liberties are to remain intact.

So I will be going to that protest. I will be standing shoulder to shoulder with men who came before me. I will be standing alongside men like Ben Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry, and countless others who stood up and refused to rest while their government ran amok.

Happy Independence Day (albeit a little early) and remember. Freedom is not free. It is bought and paid for constantly by the vigilance, blood, and tears of those who fight to believe in it. It isn't won by complacency.