The Meaning of the 4th of July to the American Father

[thedrifter]

Glenn Sacks
The Meaning of the 4th of July to the American Father

July 2, 2007 at 10:06 am · Filed under Vox Populi


"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

"Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival."--from abolitionist Frederick Douglas' speech "The Meaning of the 4th of July to the American Negro."

I've always been moved by abolitionist Frederick Douglas' speech "The Meaning of the 4th of July to the American Negro." I normally don't like analogies between slavery and the mistreatment of fathers in family court--they are often made by the lunatic fringe of the movement, and I think they tend to discredit our cause more than to help it. However.....

When Douglas speaks of "the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim," well, he could be talking about any one of the multitudes of decent, loving fathers who have been driven out of the lives of the children who love them. These men must forfeit the most important thing in life--one's children.

When Douglas speaks of a "sham" and "unholy license," one cannot help but be reminded of the sham justice which fathers often receive in family court, and the "unholy license" with which courts intervene into, maintain control over, and sometimes destroy fathers' personal lives. Douglas' "empty and heartless" also applies.

When Douglas speaks of "liberty and equality" being "hollow mockery," one thinks of our family law system's ludicrous pretense of gender neutrality.

Douglas speaks of "crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages." Well, collaborating in the forcible separation of millions of loving fathers from their children would certainly qualify. "Revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy" also fits.

Douglas' is one of the greatest--if not the greatest--men in American history. I learned much about him as a child because my father was a devotee of his writings, and often told me Douglas' stories. Douglas' full July 4 speech can be found here.

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/douglassjuly4.html

Ellie

[thedrifter]

GOD BLESS AMERICA

'Wonderfully Spared'
Our Founders were talented men--and lucky ones too.

BY JOYCE LEE MALCOLM
Wednesday, July 4, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

"You and I have been wonderfully spared," Thomas Jefferson wrote John Adams in 1812. "Of the signers of the Declaration of Independence I see now living not more than half a dozen on your side of the Potomak, and, on this side, myself alone." Jefferson and Adams were not merely signers of the Declaration. Both sat on the committee that drafted the document, and Jefferson wrote it. And while they later became bitter political opponents, they reconciled in their last years.

Adams, the Yankee lawyer, revolutionary, Founding Father and ex-president, was 77 in 1812; Jefferson, the Southern aristocrat, revolutionary, Founder and ex-president, was 69. Both were mentally acute but frail. Jefferson spent three to four hours a day on horseback and could scarcely walk, Adams walked three to four miles a day and could scarcely ride.

They would never see each other again. But from a modest farm in Quincy, Mass., and a plantation in Virginia they corresponded and reminisced about the days when they were "fellow laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to man, his right of self-government."

It's easy now, in a nation awash with complaints about what our Founders did not do, what imperfect humans they seem to 21st century eyes, to overlook how startlingly bold their views and actions were in their own day and are, in fact, even today. Who else in 1776 declared, let alone thought it a self-evident truth, that all men were created equal, entitled to inalienable rights, or to any rights at all? How few declare these views today or, glibly declaring them, really intend to treat their countrymen or others as equal, entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

Certainly not America's 20th century enemies, the Nazis and communists; certainly not today's Islamic radicals, who consider infidels unworthy to live and the faithful bound by an ancient and brutal code of law. We are fortunate that the Founders of our nation were enlightened, generous, jealous of their rights and those of their countrymen, and prepared to risk everything to create a free republic.

Breaking with Britain was a risky and distressing venture; could the American colonies go it alone and survive in a world of great European powers? If not, what better empire than the British? It took a year of fighting before the Continental Congress and the states were prepared to declare independence. "We might have been a free and a great people together," Jefferson sighed.

But if we were angry at British treatment, we were also lucky that Britain was our mother country. The British taught us respect for the rights of individuals, for limited government, for the rule of law and how such values could be realized. "An Englishman is the unfittest person on earth to argue another Englishman into slavery," Edmund Burke insisted, pleading our cause before Parliament in March, 1775.

Scores of distinguished British officers refused commissions to fight against us. Some, who were willing, were reluctant to press their advantage over our literally rag-tag army. The British parliament wrangled day after day over the fitful progress of the war. And when it was over and, thanks to French assistance, we had won, Britain was careful in negotiating the peace treaty for fear we would fall under the influence and control of the French or the Spanish. We would fight against Britain again, but over the centuries the common heritage that connects our two peoples has brought us together as close allies.

We were lucky in our generals. Unlike the commanders of nearly all revolutionary armies before and since, George Washington resisted the temptation to seize power. After England's civil war between King Charles I and parliament, Oliver Cromwell, Parliament's leading general, evicted what remained of parliament and made himself "Lord Protector." The great expectations of the French Revolution ended when Napoleon Bonaparte staged a coup against the republican government and later crowned himself emperor.

Not only do victorious generals have a nasty habit of taking over, but once an army becomes entangled in politics it is extraordinarily difficult to remove it from public affairs. Numerous modern countries have tried to control their armies and failed.

Washington prevented a coup by his officers; and when the war was over, he bid a moving farewell to his men and staff before appearing before Congress to resign his commission: "Having now finished the work assigned to me, I retire from the great theatre of Action . . . and take my leave of all the employments of public life." Then he hurried off to spend Christmas with Martha and their family. Although it sounds sentimental, trite even, it happened that way.

In their correspondence, Adams wrote Jefferson that the future would "depend on the Union" and asked how that Union was to be preserved. "The Union is still to me an Object of as much Anxiety as ever Independence was," he confided.

He was right to worry. The union has always been difficult, from the first fears that the 13 separate states would behave as competing countries or bickering groups, through a brutal and painful civil war whose wounds have yet to entirely heal, to a vast, modern land whose residents, taking for granted the blessings bestowed upon them, are deeply divided and quick to vilify each other.

More tragically, some seem to enjoy vilifying America, everything it has been and stands for, seeking and finding fatal shortcomings. Adams and Jefferson were not blind to those shortcomings. "We think ourselves possessed or at least we boast that we are so of Liberty of conscience on all subjects and of the right of free inquiry and private judgment, in all cases and yet," Adams admitted, "how far are we from these exalted privileges in fact." Recent moments of real unity after 9/11, when members of Congress stood together on the steps of the Capitol and sang "God Bless America," have been fleeting.

In 1825 Jefferson wrote to congratulate Adams on the election of his son John Quincy to the presidency--an election so close it was decided in the House of Representatives. "So deeply are the principles of order, and of obedience to law impressed on the minds of our citizens generally that I am persuaded there will be as immediate an acquiescence in the will of the majority," Jefferson assured him, "as if Mr. Adams had been the choice of every man." He closed: "Nights of rest to you and days of tranquility are the wishes I tender you with my affect[iona]te respects."

On July 4 the following year, as the nation celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, its two frail signers died within hours of each other. Their cause, "struggling for what is most valuable to man, his right of self-government," continues in the nation they launched, still fraught with aspirations and anxieties, flaws and divisions but, one hopes, with the ability to reconcile as they did, to work together for the joint venture.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

July 03, 2007, 0:00 p.m.

Pass It On
Teaching patriotism.

By Myrna Blyth


The Fourth of July is an all-American day that helps create a shared heritage that unites us as one people, a heritage that every child should learn. It is challenging to raise patriotic young Americans today, and busy parents often lack easy tools, tips, and activities to help kids recognize the importance of America’s founding on July 4.

#aD3I’m sure that most families already make a big deal out of the Fourth of July, at least in the barbecue department. (Sales of barbecue sauce surge all over the country the week before the holiday.) But we suggest families follow to some degree John Adam’s instructions on how to commemorate the glorious Fourth.

Just after signing the Declaration, Adams wrote to his beloved Abigail his vision on how to celebrate America’s birthday party: “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding Generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by Solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

As for your family’s celebration, Chriss Winston and I — we wrote a book on teaching patriotism — suggest:

Start by having the kids read a book about the Fourth or about a youngster who lived during Revolutionary times so they will absolutely understand what they’re celebrating. There are good books for kids from pre-schoolers on up including The Story of America’s Birthday by Patricia A. Pingry that can be read to the youngest. A terrific book for ages 9-12 is the children’s classic Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes.

Go to a parade. Many small towns have one, and kids, even today’s kids with their many computer games, think it is fun to hear the bands playing, see the fire trucks with lights flashing and sirens blaring, and wave to their friends and neighbors.

No parade in your area? Make your own. Round up the neighborhood kids for an old-fashioned bike parade and let them decorate their bikes with red, blue and white streamers. Give out prizes for the best decorations. .

As for Adams’s “shews,” many small towns and cities also have concerts, featuring patriotic music. The biggies, of course, are on the Mall in Washington and in Boston. If none are close by, pop in a DVD of 1776, a terrific movie musical based on the Broadway play. My kids and I used to watch it every Fourth of July. Also make sure the iPod is loaded with patriotic music. A mother recently told me that she found using the music of different eras was an easy way to teach her musically inclined kids American history.

Go to a local fireworks display, because there is no such thing as a bad fireworks display, at least not where kids are concerned. But if you want to have a New York or Boston-sized display over your own hometown or in your backyard you can, (sort of) at least on your own computer. Check out Phantom Fireworks, where you can upload a picture of your town or home and then set off your choice of Fourth of July fireworks on the screen.

With the kids, check out the Declaration of Independence on the web site of the National Archives. You can even print out a copy and get the kids to sign. Make a feather pen and berry ink, similar to the pen and ink the Founding Fathers used.

There are lots of other websites with holiday craft ideas for kids that will keep them busy all day. Some of the best are www.kidsdomain.com as well as www.billybear4kids.com and www.dltk-kids.com.

For all information about the Fourth you — or a historically minded youngster — could ever want, go to American University’s amazing Independence Day database, compiled by Jim Heintze.
And, of course, do what I am about to do. Get the whole family together and go outside and raise the flag!

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Happy Birthday America
by Armstrong Williams (more by this author)
Posted 07/04/2007 ET


Ever wonder where that phrase “put your John Hancock on the dotted line” came from? Well the expression refers to John Hancock, the president of the Second Continental Congress, who was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. Hancock's expansive signature is prominent on the document. Since then, when people are asked for their "John Hancock," they are being asked to sign their names. He immediately became famous for signing the Declaration with a far larger signature than all the other delegates. The actual expression however didn't come into use until c.1903.

The Declaration of Independence itself has become one of the most admired and copied political documents of all time. It was written by Thomas Jefferson and revised by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Jefferson. As the United States of America celebrates its 231st birthday this year (2007), we as citizens, should remember how this great nation was founded and take a moment to celebrate and embrace the goodness that makes us great.

July 4, 2007 is a day to celebrate the generations of men and women who have sacrificed their time, energy and often their lives in order to build a better country. This is an opportunity to reflect upon the deeds of our founding fathers and to consider the means by which we might continue to guard those essential freedoms that we associate with happiness. So, where do we find the greatness today? We see it in the brave soldiers who risk everything to secure freedom abroad. But we also see it in those everyday Americans who revel in the everyday joys and responsibilities of raising a family.

French Writer and politician Alexis de Tocqueville noted over a century ago:

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in the fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good -- and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

As we continually witness the constant struggles of many countries, and with due respect to our allies and enemies, the United States of America is still the most successful country. So fire up the grill, go to the beach, revel in the patriotic music at the concerts and most of all enjoy your family and friends!

Ellie

[thedrifter]

America: 231 Years Old...or Young?
by Frosty Wooldridge (more by this author)
Posted 07/04/2007 ET


This year, we celebrate the 231st anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence marking the birth of our nation.

It was the product of the Continental Congress with such dedicated leaders as John Adams of Massachusetts who served on some 90 committees, chairing 25 of these! In May, 1776, Adams offered the resolution which set the wheels in motion toward the actual writing of the Declaration. Working on a portable desk of his own construction in a room at Market and 7th Streets in Philadelphia, 33 year-old Thomas Jefferson set on paper the grievances and aspirations of the 13 colonies -- 1,337 words beginning with “When in the course of human events …”

Historically, citizens of the world’s nations derived their rights from their ruler -- a king, emperor or military dictator. The Declaration declared a revolutionary new doctrine: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 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.” It was a bold new concept that individual liberty was a birthright.

56 men signed the document, pledging to support it with “our lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” President John Hancock signed first and his signature was the largest. Putting down his pen, he quipped: “There. Now George the Third can read my name without spectacles, and may now double his reward of 500 pounds for my head. That is my defiance.”

The oldest signer was Benjamin Franklin, aged 70. Six were in their 60’s. Ten were in their 50’s. Nineteen in their 40’s. Seventeen in their 30’s. And three in their 20’s. Lawyers, judges, farmers, merchants, ministers, teachers, a musician and a printer.

Each and every one had pledged his life, his fortune and his sacred honor. That was certainly a big price to be willing to pay for something called “freedom” in the event that George Washington’s ragged, untrained and outnumbered army was unable to repulse the British forces.

In the Revolutionary War that followed, five of the Signers were captured by the British and brutally tortured. Nine fought in the War and died from wounds, or from the hardships they suffered. Twelve had their homes pillaged and burned. Several lost wives, children or entire families. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Not one, however, wavered in his pledge to his nation’s freedom.

In the face of the advancing British Army, the Continental Congress fled from Philadelphia to Baltimore on December 12, 1776. For President Hancock, it was a particularly difficult time because his wife had just given birth to a daughter, Lydia. But under the adverse conditions caused by the war, Lydia lived only a few months.

During the three years of British occupation of Newport, Rhode Island, William Ellery’s house was burned and virtually all of his property was destroyed.

When the enemy came, John Hart, a New Jersey farmer, was driven from his wife’s bedside as she lay dying. After a year of hiding in nearby forests and rock caves as a common exile and fugitive, he finally returned home to find his wife was dead, his 12 of 13 living children had disappeared, his stock, farm and mills had been completely destroyed. An old man at the time, he never lost his spirit and joined Washington’s army as a private after the battle of Princeton. Hart himself died in 1779 without ever seeing any of his family again.

Thomas Heyward, Jr., Edward Rutledge and Arthur Middleton, all of South Carolina, were captured by the British during the Charleston Campaign in 1780. They were kept in dungeons at the St. Augustine prison until exchanged a year later.

William Braxton of Virginia invested almost everything he had in the revolution. Virtually all of it was destroyed by the British and he lived the rest of his life in poverty.

Philip Livingston of New York never saw his home again. Richard Stockton, a State Supreme Court Justice, had rushed back to his estate near Princeton after signed the Declaration only to find that his wife and children were living like refugees with friends. They had been betrayed by a Tory sympathizer who also revealed Stockton’s own whereabouts. British troops pulled him from his bed one night, beat him and threw him in jail where he almost starved to death. When he was finally released, he went home to find that his estate had been looted, his possessions burned, and his horses stolen. His health seriously impaired in prison, Judge Stockton died in 1781, and his surviving family had to live the remainder of their lives off charity. His last words to his children begged them to remember that “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”

The military victory achieved by Washington’s armies after numerous setbacks was nothing short of miraculous. The system of government established in its wake was mocked and ridiculed throughout the world as “folly, doomed to failure” at worst and “a great experiment” at best.

Who, but God Almighty, could have possibly written such a magnificent script with such moving chapters? Much of it would certainly be rejected by today’s Hollywood producers as being “over the top”. Was it just coincidence that on July 4th, 1826, Thomas Jefferson awoke from a bed-confining illness at his home in Monticello, Virginia to hear the church bells and cannons celebrating the Declaration’s 50th Anniversary. “Is it the 4th?” he asked. When he heard “yes”, Jefferson smiled and within minutes had passed away. Incredibly, at the same time, a critically ill John Adams in distant Quincy, Massachusetts heard the same sounds of the celebration, and, only hours after Jefferson’s death, Adams also died. Both knew that their “great experiment” had survived at least a half century. (Our 5th President, James Monroe died five years later on July 4th, 1831. He had served with distinction, and was seriously wounded, in the Revolutionary War.)

These last two and a third centuries have been packed full with changes: the exploration of the west, the growth from 13 colonies to 50 states, the Industrial Revolution, the birth of trains and automobiles and airplanes, the Space Age, the Computer Age – to mention just a few. They have also seen bitter and costly conflicts including a Revolutionary War, Civil War, two World Wars, and recent actions in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. All in all, we have suffered over 660,000 combat deaths. The cost of protecting and preserving our freedom has averaged nearly 2,900 Americans per year -- our finest young men and women killed in combat on battlefields throughout the world.

On this July 4th, 2007, we must ask whether our nation is 231 years old, or young. It is for us to not just celebrate and enjoy the achievements of our Forefathers, but to make certain that the individual liberty which they won for us is never lost or compromised and that what is still “a great experiment” is blessed with success for generations to come. May God continue to Bless America!

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Put the "Independence" Back in Independence Day
By Michael Berliner
FrontPageMagazine.com | July 4, 2007

America's cities and towns will soon fill with parades, fireworks and barbecues, in celebration of the Fourth of July, the 231st birthday of America. But one hopes that the speeches will contain fewer bromides and more attention to exactly what is being celebrated. The Fourth of July is Independence Day, but America's leaders and intellectuals have been trying to move us further and further away from the meaning of Independence Day, away from the philosophy that created this country.

What we hear from politicians, intellectuals, and the media is that independence is passé, that we've reached a new age of "interdependence." We hear demands for mandatory "volunteering" to serve others, for sacrifice to the nation. We hear demands from trust-busters that successful companies be punished for being "greedy" and not serving society. But this is not the message of America. It is the direct opposite of why America became a beacon of hope for the truly oppressed throughout the world. They have come here to escape poverty and dictatorship; they have come here to live their own lives, where they aren't owned by the state, the community, or the tribe.

"Independence Day" is a critically important title. It signifies the fundamental meaning of this nation, not just of the holiday. The American Revolution remains unique in human history: a revolution--and a nation--founded on a moral principle, the principle of individual rights. Jefferson at Philadelphia, and Washington at Valley Forge, pledged their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor." For what? Not for mere separation from England, not--like most rebels--for the "freedom" to set up their own tyranny. In fact, Britain's tyranny over the colonists was mild compared to what most current governments do to their citizens.

Jefferson and Washington fought a war for the principle of independence, meaning the moral right of an individual to live his own life as he sees fit. Independence was proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence as the rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." What are these rights? The right to life means that every individual has a right to his own independent life, that one's life belongs to oneself, not to others to use as they see fit.

The right to liberty means the right to freedom of action, to act on one's own judgment, the right not to have a gun pointed at one's head and be forced to do what someone else commands. And the right to the pursuit of happiness means that an individual may properly pursue his own happiness, e.g., his own career, friends, hobbies, and not exist as a mere tool to serve the goals of others. The Founding Fathers did not proclaim a right to the attainment of happiness, knowing full well that such a policy would carry with it the obligation of others to make one happy and result in the enslavement of all to all. The Declaration of Independence was a declaration against servitude, not just servitude to the Crown but servitude to anyone. (That some signers still owned slaves does not negate the fact that they established the philosophy that doomed slavery.)

Political independence is not a primary. It rests on a more fundamental type of independence: the independence of the human mind. It is the ability of a human being to think for himself and guide his own life that makes political independence possible and necessary. The government as envisaged by the Founding Fathers existed to protect the freedom to think and to act on one's thinking. If human beings were unable to reason, to think for themselves, there would be no autonomy or independence for a government to protect. It is this independence that defines the American Revolution and the American spirit.

To the Founding Fathers, there was no authority higher than the individual mind, not King George, not God, not society. Reason, wrote Ethan Allen, is "the only oracle of man," and Thomas Jefferson advised us to "fix reason firmly in her seat and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God." That is the meaning of independence: trust in your own judgment, in reason; do not sacrifice your mind to the state, the church, the race, the nation, or your neighbors.

Independence is the foundation of America. Independence is what should be celebrated on Independence Day. That is the legacy our Founding Fathers left us. It is a legacy we should keep, not because it is a legacy, but because it is right and just. It has made America the freest and most prosperous country in history.

Ellie