Happy Fourth of July!

Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day, here in the United States of America.  237 years ago, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the document was adopted and those 13 original colonies declared themselves independent from Kingdom of Great Britain.

The Declaration of Independence

We still must, as a nation, reinvest ourselves in these principals set forth by this declaration and by the Constitution of the United States.  

 

The Constitution (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Constitution) was adopted on September 17, 1787 by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.  To date there have been 27 different amendments to our Constitution.  The first 10 were adapted by the House of Representatives on August 21, 1789 and are, more commonly known as, “The Bill of Rights” (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights).  These are the rights that we are entitled to as citizens of these United States.

The United States Bill of Rights

Tyranny takes many forms and seeps in through the cracks while a population is not looking.  It is important, therefore, not only to know that these documents and rights exist but to understand what they truly mean to each of us who are citizens of these United States.  We the people must always be aware.  The words contained in these documents either mean everything – or they mean nothing.  There will always be affronts and both subtle and direct attacks against these documents and our rights.  We must continue to stand for these words.  Today, across our country, Restore the Fourth (see: http://www.restorethefourth.net/) rallies were held in major cities including New York, Washington DC, Denver, San Francisco, and in Philadelphia where the Declaration of Independence was signed all those years ago. 

  

Thousands of people met today to underline the importance of the Fourth Amendment which concerns itself with, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…” and it’s importance underlined most effectively by recent events (see: http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2013/06/whistleblowing-prophecies-of-dark-knight.html or do a search for, “NSA spying”).  These citizens exercised their right to assemble and stood for a cause that I wholeheartedly believe in.  I couldn't make the event today but, Lord knows, I've Tweeted about it. 

Happy Birthday to these United States and the ideas set down on paper some 237 years ago today.  Again, those words must mean everything or they mean nothing.  I must believe that they still mean everything.

Happy Fourth of July, Gentle Reader!

“May the wings of liberty never lose a feather.” – Jack Burton, Patriot