I hope you, dear reader, will forgive me, but on Fourth of July, I'm always struck by similar reflections.
I'm always reminded of the historic relevance of the 4th of July, and how the freedoms we celebrate on "Independence Day" have been sacrificed, just as lives were sacrificed for those freedoms in the first place.
So what follows may seem a bit repetitive if you have read my Fourth of July comments in the past. But in truth, I only repeat because what I have said in the past is even more pertinent today.
In the United States, the traditional parades, speeches and fireworks each July 4th commemorate the signing in Philadelphia of the Declaration of Independence on that glorious day in 1776.
Drafted by a distinguished committee headed by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration has proven to be one of the most memorable freedom documents of all time, proclaiming as it does, every human being's right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
As Thomas Jefferson lay dying at his Virginia hilltop estate, Monticello, in late June 1826, he wrote a letter telling the citizens of the capital city of Washington, D.C. that he was too ill to join them for the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Declaration of Independence.
Seeking to inspire the gathering, he told them his belief that one day the experiment he and the Founders started with this new infant democracy would spread worldwide. "To some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all," he wrote, the American form of republican self-government would become every nation's birthright.
Democracy's worldwide triumph was assured, he said, because "the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion would soon convince all men that they were born not to be ruled - but to rule themselves in freedom."
It was the last letter Jefferson ever wrote. He died 10 days later on July 4, 1826, on the same day within hours of his old friend, fellow Founder, and fellow former President of the United States, John Adams of Massachusetts.
President Bush's professed but failed goal was to have America actively spread democracy worldwide, even to the point of making war in Iraq and perhaps in other places such as Iran. But we have to ask how well equipped America is to spread democracy abroad, when our own internal political system is in question.
My own view is that America, as a government, as a nation, and as a people, first needs to reaffirm and reassert our own liberty and freedom.
We need truly to apply the fundamentals of limited government, maximum individual freedom, equal protection under the law and due process - all of which have been called into question by many of the Bush administration policies in its sometimes perverse "war on terrorism."
If Jefferson's dream is weakening in America, our ultimate task in our national life is to save that dream, restore it and exalt America's true purpose - to build that "shining city on a hill" about which Massachusetts Bay Colony's governor John Winthrop, and later Ronald Reagan, spoke so eloquently. Then, when our own American house is in order, the world again will look to America for example.
This is our task on this 4th of July and in the 231st Year of our Independence.
I'm always reminded of the historic relevance of the 4th of July, and how the freedoms we celebrate on "Independence Day" have been sacrificed, just as lives were sacrificed for those freedoms in the first place.
So what follows may seem a bit repetitive if you have read my Fourth of July comments in the past. But in truth, I only repeat because what I have said in the past is even more pertinent today.
In the United States, the traditional parades, speeches and fireworks each July 4th commemorate the signing in Philadelphia of the Declaration of Independence on that glorious day in 1776.
Drafted by a distinguished committee headed by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration has proven to be one of the most memorable freedom documents of all time, proclaiming as it does, every human being's right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
As Thomas Jefferson lay dying at his Virginia hilltop estate, Monticello, in late June 1826, he wrote a letter telling the citizens of the capital city of Washington, D.C. that he was too ill to join them for the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Declaration of Independence.
Seeking to inspire the gathering, he told them his belief that one day the experiment he and the Founders started with this new infant democracy would spread worldwide. "To some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all," he wrote, the American form of republican self-government would become every nation's birthright.
Democracy's worldwide triumph was assured, he said, because "the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion would soon convince all men that they were born not to be ruled - but to rule themselves in freedom."
It was the last letter Jefferson ever wrote. He died 10 days later on July 4, 1826, on the same day within hours of his old friend, fellow Founder, and fellow former President of the United States, John Adams of Massachusetts.
President Bush's professed but failed goal was to have America actively spread democracy worldwide, even to the point of making war in Iraq and perhaps in other places such as Iran. But we have to ask how well equipped America is to spread democracy abroad, when our own internal political system is in question.
My own view is that America, as a government, as a nation, and as a people, first needs to reaffirm and reassert our own liberty and freedom.
We need truly to apply the fundamentals of limited government, maximum individual freedom, equal protection under the law and due process - all of which have been called into question by many of the Bush administration policies in its sometimes perverse "war on terrorism."
If Jefferson's dream is weakening in America, our ultimate task in our national life is to save that dream, restore it and exalt America's true purpose - to build that "shining city on a hill" about which Massachusetts Bay Colony's governor John Winthrop, and later Ronald Reagan, spoke so eloquently. Then, when our own American house is in order, the world again will look to America for example.
This is our task on this 4th of July and in the 231st Year of our Independence.
1 comment:
You have willfully violated copyright law and my copyright by plagarizing and publishing my writing without my permisssion and attribution at http://soundofcannons.blogspot.com/2007/07/4th-of-july.html
Unless this is removed immediately my attorneys will track down you and your web server and take legal action.
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