Why we really celebrate the Fourth of July
I posted this essay last year on July 4th. Time to repost it. I must add that my hopes for the November 2022 election were not realized, and we are now on the brink of losing our free country, forever, a fact that horrifies me beyond words.
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Why we really celebrate the Fourth of July
If you really want to know why the Fourth of July has been the quintessential American holiday since the founding our this country, you need only return to the words of the document that became public to the world on that day.
Below the fold is the full text of the Declaration. Read it. It isn’t hard to understand, even if the style comes from the late 1700s. Its point however is clear. Governments that abuse the rights of the citizenry don’t deserve to be in power. The most important quote of course is right near the beginning:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed — that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. [emphasis mine]
What a radical concept — a nation founded on the principle of allowing its citizens to pursue happiness.
Right now, however, we have a federal government in America that more fits the description of King George III’s Great Britain in 1776 in the Declaration. The corrupt elitist uni-Party of federal elected officials and the federal bureaucracy in Washington has for too long run roughshod over the general population. If you take the time to read the full text of the Declaration, you will be astonished at the remarkable conceptual similarity between the abuses that Jefferson describes coming from Great Britain and the many abuses of power that are now legion and common by the uni-Party in Washington.
When November comes the American public will likely have its last chance to overthrow the political wing of the uni-Party, led by the Democratic Party. The Republicans are no saints, but at least that party contains within it many decent politicians who honor the Constitution, the rule of law, and the Bill of Rights. Many are right now campaigning on those ideals. Based on the past six years, we now know that no one in the Democratic Party honors those values. What they honor is blacklisting, racism, segregation, anti-American hate, and above all power. If they are not removed from office, they will ramp up that power, in league with quislings like Romney and Cornyn in the Republican Party, to further corrupt our Constitutional government.
These people do not like losing power. The longer they hold it, the more they will work to undermine the election system to make sure they do not lose. The corruption and election fraud in 2020 election was merely a dress rehearsal of what these goons will do if they have the chance next year.
In fact, November 2022 might very well be the last election that has any chance of producing legitimate results. Americans had better not waste this last chance.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
The Constitution: targeted by the power-hungry for destruction.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
King George’s response to the Olive Branch Petition
John Hancock
https://youtu.be/5JTxVHQAp8w
3:08
July 2nd 1776 –
The Vote for Independence
https://youtu.be/vFPFhuOsvQ4
(3:06)
If the average American fully grasped this …
… the Dems wouldn’t be able to use “democracy” to prevail, for neither the governed nor their elected representatives get to impose any powers they can get a majority behind, but only JUST powers that do not contravene the primary mission of legitimate government: TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS..
Unalienable rights, that can only be restricted legitimately if their exercise poses a clear, present, and significant threat to the unalienable rights of others.
Democracy is not an idealistic mantra. It is a tool of governance that can be misused.
The Constitution embodies HOW the tools of governance, including democracy, are to be applied. But the reason it has an amendment process is because it’s writers knew that they might not have gotten it all right for all time.
The Declaration of Independence embodies WHY legitimate government is necessary, and WHAT its primary mission is … the Constitution and the tools of governance must be applied in accordance with the self-evident truths within the Declaration, if the government is legitimate.
Demanding that our government go beyond that primary mission to “help” us, by imposing the socio-economic morality of the elite few – or democratic “consensus” – over top of those self-evident truths, no matter how “nice” that may seem, is the open door through which the dysfunctional governance we all decry, including the petty tyrants who seek to myopically apply their socio-economic morality as the One True Way, walks in and trashes our society.
This is why we are living out Franklin’s statement … “if you can keep it”.
The Declaration represents the MORAL (political!) “meat” of our Foundng!
The Constitution, while an unprecedented document, is simply a “Roberts Rules of Order” for governance.
I always point out to my young friends that you do not find the word “rights” anywhere in the Constitution save in its first 10 Amendments. A “last minute” addition thought necessary in order for the document to be ratified!
Bob made an absolutely key point with this sentence, and it suggests the real cause of the serious problem faced by our citizens today:
“ When November comes the American public will likely have its last chance to overthrow the political wing of the uni-Party, led by the Democratic Party. ”
The political wing, while still important, has abdicated most of its power and dominion to the Fourth Estate—otherwise known simply as the federal bureaucracy, or colloquially as the Deep State. This unelected leviathan which employs hundreds of thousands (millions?) basically administers and rules however it wants. How does it know what it wants? Basically it’s the Big Money globalist oligarchs that let their desires be known through myriad channels, both direct and indirect. A very revealing example I recently learned was Larry Fink of Blackrock controls 20 trillion dollars of investments out of a worldwide estimate of 460 trillion. That’s more than 4 percent of all of humanity‘s wealth!
If by some miracle Trump is able to regain the presidency, there will still be a monumental cleaning job to be done.
The comments, so far, are particularly insightful, and they remind us of the depth of understanding and analysis that went into the creation of the American Experiment in limited, natural rights based government. Today, however, how many people can speak in such terms about the origins of our form of government, how it is designed to function, or why such a thing is even desirable? (How many of today’s students, for example, have even taken a civics course? Or courses in American history? And, if they have, is what is taught based on a thorough and objective explication of the origins of and the ideas behind our system of government (warts and all) or — more likely, now — the Big Lie of the 1619 Project and sundry other branches of Critical Theory?)
As others have pointed out, when people on the left — and especially younger ones — speak about “our democracy,” they are referring either to the kind of unchecked mob rule that so concerned the Founders (resulting in all of the checks that they incorporated to forestall it) or the “democratic centralism” of a tiny ruling elite that marks totalitarian societies such as Communist China. Certainly they are not looking for the kind of thoughtful and constrained system that limits the power of one faction to inflict harm on another.
A Collapse of Consensus?
The great divide in American life in 2023 would seem to run exactly along these lines. Do we wish to keep the kind of country / culture / society that most of us celebrated yesterday, or are we looking for something “better” in which the narrow, self serving agenda of every faction is protected / advanced through the edicts of an all powerful leviathan state? Moreover, have so many people forgotten all of the hard lessons of history that they can’t even make a reasonable case for keeping our present way of doing things / understanding this history in the way that the Founders — not to mention the former colonists — were able to?
Going a bit deeper, one might wonder if what we are really looking at isn’t so much a question of the willful — if not carefully engineered — ignorance of our own history and culture, but some kind of fundamental change in our ability to understand and comprehend reality. That is, how is it that one side can look at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and see it as one of the towering achievements of the the human intellect and spirit, while the other side sees nothing but racism and oppression? Likewise, the widening gulf in the kinds of fundamental values that people seem to embrace, from freedom *of* speech versus freedom “from” (hateful) speech, and the right to self defense versus the concept that individuals have *no* such right*, and only the state should be allowed to use force. (Special dispensation, of course, is given to state sanctioned “protestors” who take to the streets to loot, riot, and kill innocent people and destroy their property. Observe what is now happening in France.)
*Cf, the recent chocking death of an incoherent and violent subway rider at the hands of a public spirited citizen.
Quoting from a recent column by James Howard Kunstler, it does seem that we are living in very different cognitive universes where what seems “good” to one person is anathema to another:
“This is what my old friends think. Quite a few of them are aware that I write this blog. They don’t actually read it; they seem to just hear about it. The old community of Boomer friends thinks I’ve ‘gone off the deep end.’ One thing these encounters taught me is how successful the censorship and propaganda campaign of the Blob has been. These were people, you understand, who came of age believing in free speech, freedom of the press, respecting civil rights, decrying political persecutions, and, most of all, being against hegemonic wars — which, back in the sixties, was called imperialism.
These days they’re all for a righteous defense against misinformation that threatens our democracy, meaning: censorship. They wouldn’t call it that, exactly. They consider it a battle against right-wing extremism, white supremacy, misogyny, homophobia, the usual bugbears. It never occurs to them that the Blob lies to them continually, remorselessly, promiscuously about everything.
…
What we’ve got, then, this Fourth of July holiday, 2023, is basically the pro-Blob Americans against the anti-Blob Americans. It’s a vicious conflict with no sign of resolution. No amount of factual disclosure — no Durham report, no fruitless Mueller report, not any number of whistleblowers, no alt news — can persuade the pro-Blobbers that their beloved Blob lies and deceives. And no degree of coercion or punishment will convince the anti-Blobbers to fall into line and just do what they’re told. I think my old friends are insane, and they think the same about me.”
https://kunstler.com/
Is there any longer a version / vision of America that both sides can now agree on? I believe that there is**, but it will take some leaders of exceptional understanding, talent, and rhetorical skills to convince us of that. Work earnestly and pray for such leadership.
**Citing the hope expressed by Thomas Wolfe in his novel, You Can’t Go Home Again:
“I believe that we are lost here in America, but I believe we shall be found. And this belief, which mounts now to the catharsis of knowledge and conviction, is for me — and I think for all of us — not only our own hope, but America’s everlasting, living dream.”
Milt: Kunstler’s experience matches mine, but mine began long ago, in the 1970s, with the refusal by most in my baby boom generation to even consider my point of view. Their endless and automatic dismissal of anything I would say or write signaled the present close-mindedness that now dominates American culture.
Mr.Z,
“The Last Election.”
Perhaps, the title of your next novel ?
This 2-1/2 minute video is going viral where the speaker talks about why the Declaration of Independence is not taught in public school.
A summary of what he says:
Q: Why does the public education system not teach the Declaration of Independence?
A:
1. Because Declaration of Independence says it’s the people’s duty to overthrow a tyrannical government.
2. Therein lies the purpose of the Second Amendment so that we are well armed in the unlikely event we need to do a 1776 again.
3. If they taught the Declaration of Independence young people would hear the grievances of our Founding Fathers and they would think “these are the exact same grievances that I have today”.
4. Also the Declaration of Independence mentions God and that our rights are given to us by God and not by government.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17dClT96CH8
In this video, Bill Whittle gives a view that suggests why America is different:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dwz_Z62e0s (8 minutes)
We Americans admit that mankind is flawed and use that flaw to the advantage of all. It is similar to Adam Smith’s enlightened self interest.
A little selfishness can be good, because we are driven to do work that benefits others so that we can benefit from the work that the others do.
A lot of selfishness is not so good, because then we demand that someone else give us a free living. This is what happened when government generously created a welfare system to help out those who were temporarily down and out. Now. many of those people no longer try to be productive but demand that the productive give them free stuff. The safety net became, for them, a restful hammock.
The Plymouth Colony discovered this same problem when they tried what we now call Marxism. In their version, everyone works as hard as they can for seven years, when the spoils of the effort are divided equally. Some worked hard, but others did not. Starvation and disease immediately ensued. Changing to a free market capitalist system changed all that, and those who wanted to eat worked hard — hard enough that there was such a bounty that in the fall the colonists invited their Indian neighbors for a three-day feast.
We aren’t just losing America politically, we are losing it among those who should be working hard but discovered the government’s hammock, instead.
The Plymouth Colony nearly failed because of the English system and culture.
The rich sat around and did the “organizing” and required the indentured colonists to recreate England. To the point that they tried to only grow English vegetables and grains.
The coast had huge amounts of food just laying about like clams and mussels. It was even said that huge lobster were to be found by the hundreds in knee deep waters. But this was considered native food and not fit for a good Englishman.
In fact these foods were still considered poor mans food until the 1900’s.
They were so English that they would leave their tools out in the fields after work and over night like they did in England. The Indians considered them found goods and took them home. They were a little surprised when the colonists turned up demanding them back the next day.
Things did not get better until the colonists started to act and eat more native.
It went bad again until they forced everyone to work and let everyone work their own land. The gentry did not like this at all.
Capitalism harnesses mans greed and uses it to better the community by creating a better economy.
True socialism says greed is bad and tries to hinder it. Thus never building a growing economy.
pzatchok,
First, you make my point that some people didn’t do the necessary work.
Second, the tools is a moot point. They are not why the colonists had a hard time with food.
Third, you are right. English grains and vegetables don’t grow here in the Americas. What was I thinking?
Fourth, the colonists were farmers. They knew how to grow food. They were not fishermen. It was the Indians who pointed out that there was food in the sea, but that was also not why the colonists were ill and dying.
Fifth, it was when the colonists abandoned socialism and went back to European free market capitalism that things got better. William Bradford wrote of the complaints that some were not pulling their weight, and that was why the socialism experiment was abandoned. It was seen as unfair that those who did not pull their weight would get an equal share at the end of seven years. It did not matter that those who didn’t work complained that they now had to — they had to work to get by.
Sixth, even the Indians weren’t stupid enough to be socialists. They were much closer to a free market economy, so things did get better when the Plymouth colonists went back to the free market economy.
The Indians taught them about the corn (maize), because it needs more fertilizer than most foods. The European farmers knew farming, but they didn’t know the idiosyncrasies of maize. That is where the fish came in. Put a piece of fish under a corn seed, then cover with dirt and add water.
“Capitalism harnesses mans greed and uses it to better the community by creating a better economy.
“True socialism says greed is bad and tries to hinder it. Thus never building a growing economy.”
This part is true. Socialism depends upon an altruism that is beyond mankind’s ability to consistently give. Even socialist leaders behave like the English gentry, letting others do the work and yet reaping the rewards. As Gekko said, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” Remember, he lacked a better word. “Enlightened self interest” is a more correct phrase. It is in our self interest to do work that we can trade for someone else’s goods and services. That is what makes a growing economy.
Even the socialist leaders of the modern world don’t pull their weight. They live off the work of their workers, the equivalent of indentured servants. They live similar to the capitalist who risked his house and everything he owned in order to start a company. The capitalist lives well, if he succeeds and his business employs many people. The socialist leader lives well no matter how well his country does.
It was for similar reasons that the American colonists wanted to get out from under the thumb of the King’s mercantilism. The colonists did the work and the English reaped all the profit. The English thought that was fair.
Four people live on an island. One person fishes, a second person gathers berries. The first person catches two fish a day and gives a third person one of them. The second person gathers two baskets of berries a day and give a fourth person one of them. Two work, two play X-box all day. Then the X-box breaks and two people fish and two people gather berries. The fisherman each trade a fish for one of the gatherer’s basket of berries. Now that everyone is working, everyone lives better lives, and they can now feed children and grown the community.
A bit of good news
https://www.al.com/opinion/2023/07/comeback-town-alabama-may-be-the-most-pro-israel-state-in-the-country.html