Thursday, July 04, 2013

Two hundred and thirty-odd years later

It looks to finally be a rain-free day, highs close to eighty with copious amounts of sunshine. Grills will soon send flavorful smoke wafting over parks and backyards while diners try to answer the age-old question, "Does the mayonnaise potato salad smell a little 'off' to you?".

Fireworks last night and again tonight; parades with marching bands, kids on decorated bikes and giant fire trucks. People on lawn chairs in the dusk, chatting as the children run around (well past some of their bedtimes) waiting for the show.

In the two hundred plus years since the writing of the Declaration of Independence, we've grown complacent. We forget the price that was paid for our freedom, preferring to let it go in little bits and pieces as the government charged with "...deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..." seeks to legislate every facet of our lives.

It's the story of the frog who jumps into the cooking pot when the water is cold, not noticing as the heat intensifies.   "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."  

The colonists gave a good smack down to King George, declaring his governance tyranny, announcing their intentions to be free of it, to establish a form of government that worked for the people, rather than  one that provided nothing but oppression.

A thoughtful read through the list of grievances in the Declaration of Independence will reveal a number of them that could apply to our present state. But now, the enemy is not a ruler in a far away country, but those we ourselves have elected. The heat has turned up on the cooking pot, but we've barely noticed.

It's time for another revolution of sorts, one within our country, driven by those who believe in the tenets of her founding, the moral system under which she flourished for so long. It's time to undo the damage done by years of growing entitlements, ever increasing government intervention and voter apathy.

The only question is whether we still have any vestige of the fortitude of the colonists, the willingness to sacrifice, to stand firm until our goals are met.

God help us if we don't.

1 comment:

melissa said...

I totally agree with you...sad, but so true. Anyway, a sweet Fourth to you, girlfriend.