First a little background. I grew up in a military town. I have a solid, deep appreciation for the military, the job they do, the sacrifices they make. I recognize that they are the reason we aren't all speaking German right now, that we can live in a country that allows us to vote for our leaders, that sees peaceful transitions of power from one leader to the next, that gives our media the right to broadcast whatever story they want, that allows those who choose to worship and the opportunity to do so in pure peace free from government interference and so much more. I respect the soldiers and their families. I admire their commitment to their duty. My grandfathers were in the Army, my parents were in the Navy, I have friends actively serving in three different branches that I know of, and at least one Facebook friend who has the unfortunate privilege of being able to wear the gold star.
I've seen all over Facebook for years now how folks have decided that the 4th is a special day set aside to remember those who serve. But, historically, it's not. It's Independence Day. It's the day those colonists stood up to the King and said, "No more. We have the God-given right to govern ourselves," by signing a document declaring their independence from Great Britain. They changed the course of the world's fate with a document. Words on paper. The mighty sword that disguises itself as a pen. The military, as we know it, came after that.
The 4th is a day to remember those men who gathered in a hot room in Philadelphia and wrote out their thoughts and ideals as to why they should govern themselves. If any soldiers should be remembered on this day, it should be the citizen soldier who picked up his family rifle and stood up to an army. The 4th is not a day to commemorate our modern day military, for they came much later, and the document that we celebrate did so much more. It began the country that would lead the world in education, commerce, innovation, and a way of looking at governing that while not new, was certainly not common.
There are days set aside for remembering, revering, thanking, praising, and respecting our nations military. Those days are so very special. But the more something is used, the less special it becomes. Let's use the 4th to look back and remember those idealists who sat around and debated word choice, put pen to paper, and changed the course of the world through the birth of a nation.
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 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 a 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 cause; 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.
Mr. Jefferson sure had a way with words, didn't he? And that's just the Introduction and preamble. The 4th is a beautiful holiday. I, for one, will be remembering the men who wrote this, who outlined the governmental foundation that our country resides upon. I will in passing think of and thank the military who uphold this belief system around the world, but I will spend the vast majority of the day thanking those five men who holded themselves up in a hot room and hammered out the future of the world with pen, parchment, ink, and resolve.
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