As we celebrate on this holiday, let us not forget the significance of this day. Let us appreciate the freedoms granted by our God and the rights envisioned by our forefathers and guaranteed in the founding documents of our nation.
Despite the problems that we face as a nation, America remains, as stated by President Ronald Reagan, "a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiYgpPB1kwU This is a beautiful movie of Diamond Rio singing "In God We Still Trust" which you'll never hear on the radio as it's politically incorrect. It goes along with the Fourth of July Celebration of the most wonderful country in the world the good old USA.
By STEVEN WALDMAN First published: Saturday, July 5, 2008
John Adams showed remarkable prescience when he wrote to Abigail on July 3, 1776, that the anniversary of American independence would someday be celebrated with "games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations." He got that right.
Another prediction in that letter didn't pan out. He suggested that Independence Day should be "commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty" -- that independence be celebrated as a quasi-religious holiday.
For many colonists, the War for Independence was a religious war -- yes, a holy war. Yet it resulted in religious freedom.
Some believed that unless colonists rebelled, the Church of England was going to send what one preacher called "an Army of Bishops" to suppress Americans. John Adams believed that fear of British religious meddling served "as much as any other cause, to arouse the attention not only of the inquiring mind, but of the common people."
For the founders, it was a religious war in the sense that their greatest ally was God. Patriot leaders called upon God for help and ascribed battlefield victories to the intervention of what George Washington called, "the God of Armies."
But unlike other holy wars of history, this one was not designed to establish a particular religion. In part, that's because the sheer diversity of American religious life began to impress itself on the leaders of the new land. To modern eyes, colonial America might seem uniform. Except for a smattering of Jews, everyone was Christian. But to American leaders, diversity was on the rise. Before 1690, 90 percent of churches were linked with the dominant sects, Congregationalism or Anglicanism. By 1770, only 35 percent were. The Continental Congress included Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Quakers, Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed, Lutherans, Baptists, Methodists and even a Catholic.
When the Constitution included a ban on religious tests, it wasn't because the framers hated the concept. In fact, 11 of the 13 colonies had religious tests limiting public office to people of certain faiths (usually Protestants, always Christians-only). They didn't apply a religious test at the national level because they never could have agreed on one.
Washington taught his colleagues that the exigencies of war required tolerance. Anti-Catholic sentiment was so common that soldiers would celebrate Guy Fawkes Day by burning effigies of the pope. Fearing this would make it harder to attract support from Catholic France and Canadian Catholics, he banned the practice.
Even secularists did their part. While most of the colonial elites were churchgoers, the majority of the population was not. According to historian W.W. Sweet, only one in eight were full members of churches. Another set of historians placed "religious adherence" rates in 1776 at 17 percent. To some extent, transportation difficulties made church attendance for harder. Still, measured in terms of church attendance, the colonials were less religious than Americans now. Non-churchgoing Christians were resistant to a government overly influenced by a particular faith. Finally, the revolution gave birth to an idea that the best way to promote religion was for the government to leave it alone. Members of minority religions knew the patriots were using a call for religious freedom as part of their rallying cry and they exploited that philosophical opening. When the Constitution included the ban on religious tests and the Bill of Rights added a broad right for the free exercise of religion, it was noncontroversial. The facts on the ground and the philosophical climate had shifted so dramatically that religious pluralism and freedom were a necessity.
It may not be exactly what Adams had in mind. but as the "bonfires and illuminations" explode mid-air, we might pause to reflect -- and maybe even offer a prayer of thanks. We achieved something rare in history, a holy war that resulted in religious freedom.
Steven Waldman is author of "Founding Faith: Providence, Politics and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America" and editor-in-chief of Beliefnet.com. To read some early documents on religious freedom and the spiritual beliefs of the Founding Fathers, go to http://www.beliefnet.com/ foundingfaith.
The Loss of Independence by Patrick J. Buchanan (more by this author) Posted 07/04/2008 ET
Not until a year after Lexington did the Continental Congress muster the resolve to declare the 13 colonies free and independent states, no longer subject to Parliament or Crown.
Not for five years after July 4, 1776, did George Washington's army truly attain America's independence at Yorktown.
Even then, Washington and his aide Alexander Hamilton knew that the 13 states, while politically independent, were dependent upon Europe for the necessities of their national life. Without French ships and guns, French muskets and troops, the Americans could not have forced Gen. Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown.
Cornwallis would have sailed away, as Gen. Howe had from Boston.
Indeed, absent the 1778 alliance with France, our Revolution would have been a longer bloodier affair and might not have succeeded.
At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, both Washington and Hamilton were determined to make America's political independence permanent, and to begin to cut the umbilical cord to Europe.
In the Constitution that came out of that convention, the states were prohibited from imposing any tariffs on the products of other states, thus creating the greatest common market in history, the United States of America. Second, the U.S. government was empowered to raise revenue by imposing tariffs on foreign goods, but explicitly denied the power to impose taxes on the incomes of American citizens.
And as Hamilton set the nation onto a course that would ensure economic independence, Washington took the actions and made the decisions that would assure our political independence.
First, he declared neutrality in the European wars that followed the French Revolution of 1789. Second, he sought to sever the 1778 alliance with France, a feat achieved by his successor, John Adams.
Third, in his Farewell Address, the greatest state paper in U.S. history, Washington admonished his countrymen to steer clear of permanent alliances and to stay out of Europe's wars. Rarely in the 19th century did the United States divert from the course set by Washington and Hamilton.
In 1812, however, James Madison, goaded by "war hawks" Henry Clay and John Calhoun, and ignoring the counsel of the Farewell Address, declared war on Britain and came near to seeing his nation torn apart.
Had it not been for the Duke of Wellington's preoccupation with Napoleon and Andy Jackson's rout of a British invasion army at New Orleans, America might have been split asunder. In 1814, New England was on the verge of seceding, and the British had in mind splitting off the vast Louisiana territory. As it was, Madison had to flee the Washington, when a British Army came up the Bladensburg Road to burn the Capitol and Madison's White House.
After peace in 1815, however, Madison signed the Tariff Act of 1816 to prevent British merchants from dumping goods into the United States to kill America's infant industries that had arisen during the war and to prevent British merchants from recapturing the U.S. markets they had lost.
For most of the 19th century, the nation followed the economic policy of Hamilton and the foreign policy of Washington -- and was richly rewarded. By the first decade of the 20th century, America was the most independent and self-reliant republic in all of history.
And by staying out of two world wars of the 20th century until many of the bloodiest battles had been fought, America emerged in 1945 economically and politically independent of all other nations.
During the Cold War, however, Americans came to believe that a temporary alliance, NATO, was necessary to prevent Joseph Stalin's empire from overrunning Europe and turning the balance of power against us. To help our wartime allies and former enemies Japan, Germany and Italy to their feet, we set aside Hamilton's policy and threw open the American market to the goods of Free Europe and Free Asia.
These should have been temporary alliances and temporary measures. Instead, they were made permanent.
No longer free of foreign entanglements, as Thomas Jefferson urged, we now have commitments to defend 50 countries. The old Hamiltonian policy of "Prosper America First" has given way to worship of a Global Economy, at whose altars we sacrifice daily the vital interests of our own manufacturers and workers.
"Interdependence" is now the desired end of the new elite.
And so we have become again a dependent nation. We borrow from Europe and Japan to defend the oil of Europe and Japan in the Persian Gulf. We borrow from China to buy the goods of China. We are as dependent on foreign borrowing as we are on foreign oil.
And the questions arise: If the men of '76, who led those small and vulnerable states, were wiling to sacrifice their lives, fortunes and sacred honor for America's independence, what is the matter with us?
Do we not value independence as they did? Or is it that we are simply not the men our fathers were?
We achieved something rare in history, a holy war that resulted in religious freedom.
Things have certainly changed through the generations. Religious freedoms have now resulted in banning reading of the bible in certain arenas and taking down public religious statements and taking prayer out of school. hmmmmm
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Carl Strock THE VIEW FROM HERE Declaration bold despite dubious claims Carl Strock can be reached at 395-3085 or by e-mail at carlstrock@dailygazette.com.
You will be proud to learn what I did on the Fourth of July: I read the Declaration of Independence. Of course I did other things, too like eat lunch, but I did go back and read the entire founding document Not just the first, supposedly uplifting, part about all men being created equal, but the entire list of grievances against the British king, including the charge that he was stirring up “the merciless Indian savages” against the righteous colonists, and I couldn’t help but be struck by the audacity of it. When those fellows said they pledged each other their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor they meant it. If their endeavor had failed, they would have gone to the gallows. There are people even today who shrink from the claims made in the Declaration, and from time to time we hear about some smart aleck who circulates a petition repeating them — that we have the right to overthrow our government if it becomes destructive of our freedoms, for example — and about the many people who refuse to sign. I bet more Americans — 68 percent, according to a recent poll — believe in angels and demons than believe in the right of the people to overthrow their government. I am not a 100 percent subscriber to the rhetoric of the Declaration myself. For example, the assertion that all men are created equal is patently false, even leaving aside the question of whether women are included in “men.” All people may be of equal worth in some gauzy metaphysical sense, but we are clearly not created with equal abilities. Some are smart, some are dumb. Some are athletic, some are clumsy. Some are musical, some are tone-deaf. And in Jefferson’s time, some were slaves, even born slaves. His slaves. It was wise of him to declare that his assertions were “self-evident,” since if he had had to produce evidence, he might have been hard pressed. Likewise that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. More high-sounding words. If we have rights it’s because we lay claim to them, that’s all. For many thousands of years of human history the alleged Creator didn’t show any interest in our alleged rights. It was an idea that arose just a few hundred years ago, a very human idea. That governments are instituted among men to secure those rights is another high-sounding assertion with little to support it. Ask any anthropologist: In the long history of mankind it’s likely that strong leaders arose first, and people gathered around them for security. Nothing to do with rights, everything to do with survival. But never mind. The Declaration of Independence is still audacious. It still throws down the gauntlet to tyrants.
Likewise that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. More high-sounding words. If we have rights it’s because we lay claim to them, that’s all. For many thousands of years of human history the alleged Creator didn’t show any interest in our alleged rights. It was an idea that arose just a few hundred years ago, a very human idea.
Perhaps it is a very human idea....but inspired by WHO and on what FOUNDATION! Sometimes I think Mr. Strock needs to find another job. He should consider talk radio as a shock jock!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
I am not a 100 percent subscriber to the rhetoric of the Declaration myself. For example, the assertion that all men are created equal is patently false, even leaving aside the question of whether women are included in “men.” All people may be of equal worth in some gauzy metaphysical sense, but we are clearly not created with equal abilities. Some are smart, some are dumb. Some are athletic, some are clumsy. Some are musical, some are tone-deaf. And in Jefferson’s time, some were slaves, even born slaves. His slaves.
I think the "all people being equal" is just another way of saying----"be careful to whom you do things to, what things you do to them, how you do them etc,,because the fact remains that NO ONE has returned from the dead to talk of the bad things they are accused of or of whom they are accusing.".........
the 'judgements' are always toward oneself before weighed upon someone else........otherwise Hitler would have been right and still in power........
"...a man looks in a mirror, looks away and forgets what he has seen...."
Currently we are ALL slaves to the systems......oil, gas, food, etc......equal= you betcha..........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
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