Needing Independence Day More Than Ever

Needing Independence Day More Than Ever

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
July 4, 2014 – Independence Day

“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 G-d entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

Thomas Jefferson, who would eventually serve as the first Secretary of State (1789-94), second Vice President (1797-1801), and third president of the United States (1801-09), would pen the words of The Declaration of Independence at the age of 33 in 1776 in 17 days. (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html)

Jefferson, at the behest of his rival and friend John Adams – first vice president (1789-97) and second president (1797-1801), was selected to write the document that would separate the future United States of America from the tyranny that was Great Britain and King George III. This document would outline the “abuses and usurpations,” committed by the king, despotically ruling from across an ocean, unilaterally making decisions typically not in the best interest of the rank and file – the people, but in the best interest of King George III and his desires to shore up his place in history as a so-called leader. (Amazingly, Adams and Jefferson died on the same day and date – July 4, 1826 – 50 years to the day of the issuing of The Declaration of Independence.)

Knowing the result of such a declaration would lead to conflagration with England; Jefferson ended the Declaration of Independence thusly: “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 tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Jefferson understood the seriousness of this separation from Great Britain and the importance of rights divined from G-d, not from man. Jefferson continued to outline the grievances of the American people in The Declaration of Independence:

“He had made Judges dependent on his Will alone…

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance….
“For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world…
“For imposing Taxes upon us without our Consent…
“For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury…
“…abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Government…
“For suspending our own legislatures…

With every protestation by the American colonists to King George III came more malignant rebukes leading the Continental Congress to issue The Declaration of Independence. Ultimately the Revolutionary War (1775-83) would lead to independence, but not without the loss and sacrifice of 25,000 Americans, as freedom is not free.

Jefferson’s wisdom was prophetic as he knew and understood the pitfalls of a growing debt and expanding government. Much to the chagrin of the United States of America in 2014 that has not been as good a student of history as it should.

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world."

“I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared.”

As a nation mired in a $17 trillion-plus debt, the United States is enslaved to those to whom we owe that massive liability. The interest alone is crippling in more ways than that of a physical war. Government grows larger, thus the need for more money from the people. Remember, there is no such thing as government money – only that which it steals from the people who willingly pay for more services handled worse and worse by government agencies. See also the current scandals under the IRS and Veterans Administration.

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

This speaks volumes as Jefferson understood the value of self-sufficiency and personal responsibility which is being eroded more and more with each passing generation. Demands of a growing entitlement society only propagate the massive debt growing by leaps and bounds as a legislative branch fears their own defeat at the ballot boxes for reelection instead of saying no to the people and really representing their best interests by cutting off the spigot drowning the nation in the debt that enslaves us to our enemies.

More than 200 years later another great American leader, Ronald Reagan said, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Reagan knew that the more government intervenes in the people’s lives, the more dependent upon government the people become and the more enslaved they become, losing their rights and freedoms.

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Jefferson knew that without a personal stake in the experiment called the democratic republic success would be fleeting and the entitlement crowd would prefer to have government take care of them cradle to grave. What they failed to remember was another Jefferson gem: “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.”

While Jefferson wrote about “altering fundamentally the forms of our government,” as one of the reasons for Americans’ discontent with King George III, 232 years later, on October 30, 2008, a candidate for president, Barack Hussein Obama announced his goal of “fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” This statement was the harbinger of some of the most deleterious actions taken by any president in the history of the republic.

Both Obama and the Congress that serves as his rubber stamp, save for the few willing to stand up to him, must recall and understand that the first American Revolution was fought against a distant tyrannical King willing to unilaterally change the rules in the middle of the game. After all America and England are separated by an ocean and pre-dated technology.

Today, the United States is on the precipice of a second American Revolution ready to reclaim and recapture the rights eroded and stolen by a government also separated by distance – that between the rank and file and those sitting in their lofty Houses of Congress who don’t even abide by the same laws they enact and expect the people to obey. We are prepared to strike back against a tyrannical so-called leader who threatens to unconstitutionally make Congress irrelevant via the use of his phone and his pen, his reputation hanging in the balance and the will of the people be damned.

The pen may be mightier than the sword, but the rule of law still reigns supreme in these United States and our rights are made manifest by G-d, not man. A happy and meaningful Independence Day to the citizenry of the United States of America.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.