âIn the days ahead, only the very courageous will be able to take the hard and unpopular decisions necessary for our survival in the struggle with a powerful enemy. And only the very courageous will be able to keep alive the spirit of individualism and dissent which gave birth to this nation, nourished it as an infant, and carried it through its severest tests upon the attainment of its maturity.â -JFK
For 233 years, Independence Day has been the celebration of the day we declared our independence from the tyrannical reign of King George III. Since the times that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, it has become a symbol of freedom known worldwide. Thomas Jefferson noted, in a letter to John Adams in 1821 that:
‘The flames kindled on the 4 of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.’
Americans should remember the extreme sacrifices the Founders made so we could be free. We also cannot forget the extreme danger that was involved by just signing the document. That seems to be taken for granted nowadays, but it was an act of true bravery. One of the bravest, Ben Franklin, commented after he signed it:
“We must hang together, or assuredly,
we will hang separately”
Maybe this 4th of July you should ask yourself, ‘What the hell went wrong?’
