HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/edbierman/9214594391/in/photolist-f3gcT6-ocnPBL-ocnVGS-f3vEDJ-oefiBA-oemrUd-f3vETq-f3gq2p-f3vAWd-a1dFMN-nVzJpW-f3vycs-f3vtPU-f3vBYS-ocZ4ZE-9ZuE6W-a1angk-a1ddjE-nVrTh2-ctXt8U-cvoBmL-f3gb5z-ofYoek-f3vpzd-9ZxHQL-9ZxRnu-nWHX1e-9ZHqjZ-oe8Ptm-9ZUMo9-9ZHyqH-9ZHyde-a1wKnG-msCxkv-9ZLiN3-9ZHvna-a9b3pV-nVA7z6-9ZLjRC-nWGQMY-9ZRRM4-odChqC-o9Rnhe-ofL3Dc-9ZTyrD-g1gbeR-9ZUL7U-o9NV98-a1L1AD-9ZRUvR
Ed Bierman, Flickr Creative Commons

I love the 4th of July! You get to meet up with your friends and family, head over to the park, throw some beef on the barbie, and watch the kids spin themselves up waiting and waiting and waiting for the sun to go down so they can oooooo and ahhhhh at the fireworks. What a great holiday and what a great reason to have one. This is the 239th years since we told Ol’ King George that we just weren’t going to take it anymore, and that it was our steadfast belief that everybody was born equal, every one was born free, and we all come “with certain unalienable rights”. Do you realize how rare that concept is? 239 years ago Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and a couple other guys wrote that concept down on paper FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MANKIND’S HISTORY. For all the previous millennia people were subjects, born owing their masters, their governments, their monarch a debt…themselves. There was no choice in the matter , you were a ruler or you were ruled.

But in the last 239 years the concept of personal freedom has been one that has been incredibly difficult to squash. Even under the most brutal of dictatorships, the idea of freedom blossoms. Adolf Hitler couldn’t kill it, Josef Stalin couldn’t kill it, Mao Tse Tung couldn’t kill it, and certainly not by more modern tyrants like North Korea’s Kim family.

America is a young country, America has certainly stumbled along the way, but more often than not the American PEOPLE have been as accepting and as willing to right the wrongs of the past as any you could hope for, it’s just a shame that the people we elect don’t do likewise with as much speed and good intent. So grab a hot dog, a beer, and a lawn chair and let’s all enjoy the FABULOUS FOURTH!