The Fourth Of July - America's Most Important Holiday

The Fourth of July is America’s most important holiday. It commemorates the day our Founding Fathers went out on a limb. They bet their property – and their LIVES – on the rather slim possibility that a handful of idealists, townsmen, and farmers could defeat the armed forces of the mightiest nation on earth, Great Britain. In the war that followed the Declaration of Independence, the colonists fought the British army for eight long years. Because of a couple of key military victories, and because the monetary and human costs of the war were taking its toll on Britain, the English people grew tired of the fighting, and the government grew tired of the great cost of the war.  The Americans won the war, but it was largely a reflection of the Crown's unwillingness to prolong the fighting or commit enough forces to destroy the rebels. 
Those two hundred odd years later, it appears we have not learned the lessons history tried to teach us. As a young child, I knew several people whose loved ones were killed in Viet Nam. I saw my grandmother worry and cry nearly every day wondering if her son, my uncle, would live through another day in a land no one had ever heard of, and certainly could not locate on a map. We sent over 58,000 men and women to their death, but in the end there was no victory. Just brave dead and wounded soldiers who gave all for their country. (No, I did not forget Korea. I am just glad that one only lasted three years, but with the same results.) Most of us who are alive now saw the Russians spend ten years or so in Afghanistan, lose thousands of their young men, as well as killing thousands of Afghan civilians. The Russians were the second most powerful military force at the time, and were defeated by primitive tribesmen. Oh, yes, by many of the same tribesmen fighting US today.

My point is really three points. First, we cannot force our way of life on other nations and cultures when those nations do not want to embrace "democracy." Second, if we never learn point number one (history repeating!), we will never have peace abroad or a balanced budget at home. The “War on Terror” for instance (since terror is only a concept) can be a never ending, ever expanding, ever more expensive endeavor. And third, the price of allowing the “War on Terror” to be the driving factor of our foreign and domestic policy is ultimately the loss of our own freedoms, those INALIENABLE rights so precious to our Founding Fathers. For you see, our Government will slowly absorb our freedoms in the name of providing “security.” As Mr. Obama so eloquently told us, “ …a civilian security force just as strong is the military” is what he foresees as the saving factor for this nation. I don’t know about you, but what I see as the saving factor for this nation is a restoration of our democratic republican government, like that described and regulated by our United States Constitution.

This Fourth of July I hope we will all honor the men and women who have died to keep us free, but also I hope we will voice our support of those political leaders who are still bound by the Constitution, who still believe the Constitution outlines our freedom, and limits our government (made up of the people, remember?) in its control and regulation of our freedom. God Bless America on this Fourth of July.