July 4, 2010

On the fourth of July in the year of our lord seventeen hundred and seventy-six, we declared ourselves to be a nation independent of the rule of good King George. As things go, in today's terms it was a glorified press release. But, back in the day it was freakin huge! Imagine this little upstart buncha rednex telling the superpower of the age to pound sand and get out of town. The world laughed, and then stared with jaws dropping and the upstarts eventually did as they promised.

The rest is history. From that press release came the nation Ronald Reagan called "the bright shining city on the hill". In the past couple of centuries that upstart nation rose to a level of dominance that good King George could only fantasize about. In the process we saved the world and set an example that can only be called miraculous.

The question I have for you is whether we would have the courage of our convictions to rival that of the first generation of American patriots? Are you ready to lay it all on the line for a philosophical position? I hope it never comes to that. Instead, I hope that the American people wake up to the enormous legacy handed to us and the burden of greatness history has placed upon us.

I hope everyone celebrated our independence and for just a moment gave thanks to that first generation of patriots.