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.

July 4, 2009 – “And the rocket’s red glare ….. the bombs bursting in air ….. gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.  Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ….. O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

That’s right!  The “star-spangled banner does yet wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave” and it will continue to wave, because Americans will not let go of their hard-won freedom.

As Francis Scott Key watched over the ramparts from his sloop, after visiting a British ship in an attempt to exchange a prisoner during the war of 1812, he managed to hold on to his strong belief in liberty and as long as that flag still waved over Fort McHenry in the battle of Baltimore, liberty still lived in his mind and on the land he loved.

July 4, 2009 – “My God!  How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!” said Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and our third President. As usual, he was right.

Present day Americans take for granted the story of the American Revolution, but few consider what a fearful undertaking that was when the Declaration was published on July 4, 1776.

Thirteen colonies of the greatest power on Earth at that time, Great Britain, determined to establish a free and independent nation.

“At what point then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer that if it ever reach us, it must spring from amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be the authors and finishers. As a nation of free men, we must live through our times or die by suicide.” – Abraham Lincoln

July 4, 2009 – The tattered flag that flew over Fort McHenry near Baltimore Harbor is now enshrined in a museum. Francis Scott Key, an American lawyer, had boarded a British warship on Sept. 13, 1814 to petition the British for the release of an American doctor held prisoner. Before Key could leave the ship however, the British fleet attacked Ft. McHenry. Key was detained during the battle, and all he could do was stare out over the water toward Ft. McHenry as the furious British bombardment pummeled the fort for over 25 hours. When the shelling stopped after dawn, Key eagerly peered out over the water through the early-morning mist and gun smoke. With unspeakable joy he beheld the flag yet flying defiantly over the fort, and wrote down his feelings in a poem that would eventually become our national anthem.

Now, the rest of the story…

July 4, 2009 – 2009 marks the end of an era in which the United States of America led the world in prosperity, power, individual liberty and freedom. The US Constitution no longer stands as the cornerstone of freedom. The average American is no longer well suited for self-governance. The federal government no longer serves at the pleasure of the people and the states and the future of the greatest nation ever known to mankind, is beyond bleak.

The American people are divided into three political blocs today.

Those who desire access to the earnings and assets of others and are using the weight and power of the federal government to rob their fellow Americans of freedom, liberty and hard earned prosperity.

1776: The Declaration of Independence is signed. It will take 117 years before someone gets around to saying, “Hey, maybe we should preserve this thing.”

Writing the Declaration of Independence may have fallen to Thomas Jefferson (center, wearing red vest), but how to keep the document in shape has been anything but self-evident.

The Declaration of Independence can be fairly said to stand alongside the Magna Carta and Bill of Rights as the most important documents in the history of democracy. Its significance was understood from the moment it was signed, so one is left to wonder why its preservation was ignored for so long.