Today we celebrate the greatest experiment in human freedom and self-determination in the history of the world. With fireworks and corn-on the cob and Old Glory flying in front yards across the nation, we play with our kids, watch parades and take a well-deserved summertime day of rest.
There have been moments in the history of the country when our very survival was at stake. Could General Washington’s home-town militias prevail over what was considered the best professional and battle-hardened army in the world? WouldAmerica’s patriot leaders be hunted down, stripped of their homes and hanged in public squares for daring to question royal decrees from a distant and arrogant government?
It took both courage and steely determination to risk everything for a new concept in government and self-determination. By sheer force of will, tactical brilliance and a revolutionary political philosophy, we did best King George’s army and his mercenaries. The bloody footprints of shoeless patriot soldiers marked the snow and frozen ground when we crossed theDelaware and turned the tide of war to favor the creation of a new nation of free citizens.
Our capitol was burned to the ground in the War of 1812, our economy was left in tatters after the Great Depression; our PacificFleet was all but lost at Pearl Harbor and thousands died in the attack on the World Trade Center on 9-11-2001. In every case and many more, the American spirit of individualism, entrepreneurship, tough determination, hard work and sacrifice by average Americans from Providence toKansas City to Santa Fe to Seattle met such challenges, head-on, and not only recovered and overcame them but made the country stronger, more resilient and more determined.
Today, as we see the Red, White and Blue everywhere I ask you to reflect on who we are and how far we’ve come. I ask you to pause for a moment and remember and thank those young men and women who are still in harm’s way in the mountains and deadly valleys of Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world. We owe them and those who have come before us everything.
When you remember how many have given so much so we can celebrate our great nation’s independence today I know you will understand why we fight so hard now against a piece of legislation enacted without the “consent of the governed”—the American bedrock principle that defines a free people who vowed never to let government, whether near or distant, erode or ignore the noble meaning of our hard-won experiment in liberty and self-determination.
Ken Hoagland
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