HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA – INDEPENDENCE DAY … HAPPY 4TH OF JULY 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA – July 4, 2009

May everyone have a safe and festive July 4th, celebrating the birth and freedom of America.

God Bless America

America the Beautiful – Ray Charles

At some point during this July 4, 2009 when you are spending time with family and friends, attending a picnic, get together or family reunion, and watching fireworks this evening, please take the time to either read or contemplate what this day truly means and the words that were written in The Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776.

Do not ever forget that today is about Life, Liberty, Freedom and “We the People”. Representatives that acted by and for the people of the Colonies and a new nation at great sacrifice. I would ask of our politicians today … where are those brave men and women that cared more of the people, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness than they do about being reelected and usurping power?

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare,

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

The Declaration of Independence …

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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that 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. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. (read the rest here)

Boston Pops – 4th of July – 1812 Overture

What’s the 4th of July without this childhood favorite … The Shot Heard Round the World

On Independence Day, Liberty’s crown reopens

UPDATE I: From Michelle Malkin, Independence Day: America turns 233

I’ll be counting my blessings along with thousands of others at the Dallas Tea Party at Southfork Ranch later today. Come on down if you are anywhere near the area. The Christian Science Monitor’s Patrick Jonsson has a good recap and overview of Tea Party gatherings across the country.

From the Frugal Cafe … Lee Greenwood, God Bless the USA

Also from Hot Air, Happy Independence Day and some thoughts to truly contemplate as to the brave individuals who formed this great land.

Two hundred and thirty-three years ago today, a group of men published a document that changed the world forever — and transformed a series of colonies clinging to a shoreline into a nation that not only led people into freedom by example, but also by shedding our blood to liberate hundreds of millions around the world.  We have made our mistakes, and continually strive to overcome our flaws.