Are We Straining to Remember What’s At The Heart of July 4th?

The 4^th of July is a national holiday that is mostly a celebration of summer in full swing. This is a day when U.S. citizens relax and enjoy recreation. The multitude of firecrackers and fireworks displays are reminiscent of words in our National Anthem that say, “…and the rockets red glare and the bombs bursting in air.”

This ingrained symbolism tends to glorify war without consideration for the ugly conflicts that bring horrific death and overwhelming destruction. The reason may be that celebrations for peace would most likely be the serenity of meditation or reading. There is not much excitement for children in watching their parents meditate – they would certainly  prefer to watch the parade and go to the stadium where the fireworks are lighting up the summer sky.

Besides, what is more American than hearing the local high school marching band play the Star Spangled Banner and listening to the combined church choruses belting out The Battle Hymn of the Republic after gathering at the athletic field to eat hotdogs while watching fireworks?

Do our progeny know the significance of the Boston Tea Party in December 1773? Have our children and grandchildren read about the ‘shot heard round the world’ that was fired by a Patriot on April 19, 1775, initiating the battles of Lexington and Concord? Should we remind others and ourselves how General, later President, George Washington and his men suffered in the snow and bitter cold of Valley Forge in 1778?

The Declaration of Independence won unanimous votes by 56 dedicated members of the Continental Congress representing 2½ million people in the thirteen original colonies. Seven Virginians signed the document 237 years ago on July 4, 1776; George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee and Carter Braxton.

Renewed pride should break out each year, not to pound our chests as the most powerful sovereign nation in the world, but as a haven for men and women that thirst for liberty, freedom and self-determination.

The Declaration of Independence opens with the following prescient words: “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.”

Among the signers of the Declaration, two would become the second and third President respectively; John Adams of Massachusetts and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. By a quirk of fate, (or perhaps divine grace depending on your view) they died the same day (July 4, 1826) on the 50^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

May our political, business, religious and academic leaders in concert with our citizens perpetuate adherence so enduring to the principles espoused in The Constitution of the United States and The Declaration of Independence that this nation will remain a beacon of hope for all people of the World.

– Dick Baynton