Independence Day Remains the Same

This grand experiment with Democracy has gone on for 229 years and we seem to be unravelling under pressure of those who want to take our voices and our minds out of the equation.

You probably already heard the bleak story about the fate of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. Maybe you got the same email I did, but I will share the important part of it with you.

When you read this I hope that you will respect and appreciate the sacrifices these men made enough to respect and appreciate the sacrifices our modern patriots have been and are still making.

To our soldiers who have been asked to give up their lives, their families, jobs, hobbies and their health and assorted body parts, Godspeed and good luck, may you arrive home safely and soon.

To Joseph Darby, Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy, Cindy Sheehan, Robert Byrd, Joe Wilson, Jim McDermott, Henry Waxman, John Conyers, Jim Jeffords, Ron Paul, Chuck Hagel, Jessica Lynch, Bob Grahm, Howard Dean, Cynthia Mckinney, Ray McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Michael Moore, and so many others, thank-you for having the courage of your convictions long enough to speak truth to a corrupt and vengeful power in this time of manufactured fear.

Thank-you to all the college professors, journalists, civil servants and military professionals who sacrificed their careers on the altar of truth and honesty. Your voices not only reverberate, they are beginning to cresendo with the inclusion of every one of us who dares to speak out about the assaults on our freedoms and the deceptions we have been subjected to.

The intensity increases every time someone finds the courage to step and say "no more". One by one we grow.

And yet the battle to protect what generations of Americans sought to achieve is perilous. One by one we speak as we must to honor those who came before us.

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men
who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors,
and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army;
another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or
hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their
fortunes,
and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.
Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large
plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but
they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing
full well that the penalty would be death if they were
captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and
trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the
British Navy. He sold his home and properties to
pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British
that he was forced to move his family almost
constantly.
He served in the Congress without pay, and his family
was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from
him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery,
Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge,
and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted
that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the
Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged
General George Washington to open fire. The home was
destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed.
The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few
months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she
was
dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His
fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more
than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning
home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

Some of us take these liberties so much for granted,
but we shouldn't.

George W. Bush is not Lord. The Declaration of Independence is not an infallible guide to Christian faith and practice. Nor is the U.S. Constitution, nor the U.N. Universal Declaration on Human Rights. "Original intent" of America's founders is not the hermeneutical key that will guarantee national righteousness. The American flag is not the Cross. The Pledge of Allegiance is not the Creed. "God Bless America" is not the Doxology.

Sometimes one needs to state the obvious—especially at times when it's less and less obvious.

I don't know the source for the story about the signers, but I do know I lifted the last quote from the Slactivist.