Celebration of Liberty

Independence Day is an opportunity to renew hopes and remind us of our everlasting duty, to remain vigilant as keepers of the Constitution. Though it was President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden who most recently took the oath of office to defend the Constitution, we, as American citizens, must realize that we are truly the last line of defense for the Constitution. We gather with like-minded citizens and reach out to help educate others regarding the potential of America’s prosperity under the Constitution.

As a Nation, we must know how our Constitution was born and what our Constitution says, in order to be honorable and wise “keepers”. Not only do we need to know the words, we need to understand the intentions of those who masterfully drafted it. We cannot assume to know the intentions of others, but certain consistent actions can help us determine what is important to them. For the founders, as a collective group, liberty was their ultimate passion.

These faithful servants were believers in principle, and while there were definitely disagreements among them, they could put aside their differences and come together for one cause. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Gentlemen, we must all hang together now, or we will all hang separately."

We have a great cause today. We are even better equipped than our founders with vast amounts of diverse information at our fingertips, with the Internet and electronic text books, but are we as serviceable as these men who worked, toiled, and sacrificed for our liberty? Perhaps our fight today requires this equipping, for we are battling in a war that requires strong backs, quick minds, and strong hearts. This war we fight began long, long ago—a war against those who wish to steal our liberty and gain power. There are many Americans who are unaware that their liberty has constantly been threatened and has been since the day the Constitution and Declaration of Independence were signed. Most Americans have allowed themselves to be tied up as if by a silk thread. For years this thread has been gently and slowly wrapping itself around many of us. Silk thread is soft and shiny and the more it weaves and the tighter it gets the more it glimmers and the softer it feels. Eventually, as a fly in the spider’s web, that silk thread has bound us hand and foot—mind and heart. We become so bound that we cannot be easily freed from this bondage. What once appeared as beautiful, soft, and gentle has a death grasp that confines, constrains, and confiscates our individuality. We can be equipped with great information for the war, or we can be taken prisoner and offer no support. Oppression, tyranny, and despotism are the powers that come from soft glittery appearances, but carry the wrath of slavery.

George Washing made this point clear at Valley Forge when he said, “The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army.”

Independence requires boldness. America is great, but have we forgotten that this greatness is a result of hard work and what used to be a constant reverence for and fighting for Independence. Use your resources. We have been given them for a purpose. You can make a difference now. If not now, when, If not me, who then?