An Independence Day Statement

        I’m planning to celebrate Independence Day this year in a bigger way than I ever have before. Maybe it’s because the birth of my daughter has given me a whole new perspective of freedom. I also feel that in some way I am witnessing the ending of an era. Deep in my heart, I feel the America that my daughter will experience will not be the same America that I have known and loved. Through the efforts of power-hungry tyrants, who are seizing at an alarming rate the liberties for which many brave individuals freely sacrificed their lives, possessions, and honor, the America of which my ancestors were proud is quickly disappearing into the sunset. A population who is being educated from birth in a worldview diametrically opposed to that of our ancestors is enabling this change. Secular media and the government education system have successfully replaced duty, honor, and respect with entitlement, a victim mentality, and distain for the values that the Founding Fathers embraced. When these people look back at American history (the few of them that know even a little about it), they see only the mistakes that were made and never the overwhelming good. They despise our heritage and feel the need to apologize regularly to the rest of the world for this nation’s place in history. They see America as a blight to the globe and think that we should bend-over and bow to other “more enlightened” nations. These individuals reject both freedom in favor of an illusionary idea of security, and self-responsibility in favor of government dependence. Taking full advantage of this generation’s belief system, and their pre-occupation with entertainment and self-indulgence, the tyrants in government greedily seize every freedom that they are readily offered on a silver platter. These freedoms are given up under a promise of a globalized utopian America, free from all the outdated ideas of the previous generations. The deep dark secret of which these tyrants are keenly aware is that when the foundation is destroyed, the whole structure will topple like a house of cards. At that time, all that will remain will be tyranny, and the utopian promise will fade into despotism.

        Perhaps I’m painting too dark of a picture, but there is a light in this darkness. It is evident from the fact that I am writing this that there are some who have not consumed the cool-aide of pop-culture. Somehow, the values of our parents took hold in our hearts. We know that liberty is not the long dead remnant of an antiquated philosophy, and it evokes in our hearts a sense of duty. To us, liberty is a gift from God to humanity, and no person or government has the authority to grant it or take it away. In the same way, we realize that we cannot invent some new privilege, call it a right and expect others to grant it to us. We believe that the government should treat everyone equally, and we resent the fact that any person is granted special privileges because of their race, religion, or lifestyle, but that does not keep us from working hard to provide safety and security for our families. We react with outrage when tyrants try to take more of our hard-earned possessions to buy votes from those who feel that the world owes them something. We take seriously our responsibility for our own safety, our family’s safety, and the security of our nation. Accordingly, we tenaciously protect our right to keep and bear the firearms that we use as tools for protection from evil men and tyrants, and we never fall for the government’s promise of security in exchange for liberty. We pour into our children the character that we learned from our parents and from the pulpit on Sunday morning. We teach our children that for every action they take there is a consequence, and blaming some thing or person for poor decision-making is cowardly and dishonest. We teach them that lost freedom is rarely regained and that it is sometimes necessary to make sacrifices to keep liberty safe. We do this because it is our responsibility as parents to raise our children – not the government’s and not MTV. We pass on a tradition that is priceless, for we learned at the knees of our parents and grand-parents what it truly means to be an American. When we see “Old Glory” waving in the breeze a chill goes up our spines. When we hear the triumphal tones of “The Star Spangled Banner” we stop and take notice, and we pay our respect. Our minds travel to some far away land where we hear the report of gunfire and the pounding of artillery. We smell the smoke and hear the cries of wounded men – and we call to mind an important fact. Brave souls endured these horrors so that we could have liberty. Indelibly etched upon our minds is the solemn tune of “Taps” from a time when we watched uniformed soldiers bear the flag-draped coffin of a brave warrior who had fallen. We watched his family weep inconsolably because they had lost a spouse, a parent, and a loved one. Their tragedy translates into our liberty. We remember the faraway look in the tearful eyes of a grandparent who reluctantly spoke of trials he endured while freeing some foreign shore.

        We honor these sacrifices by living our own lives by a system of values and not for the ill-gotten wealth of statists and politicians. There may be fewer of us left than there once was, but as long as we hold to the principles that have made this country great, and seek the hand of God in our destiny, I believe there is always hope. Therefore, I stand with my fellow patriots and hold my head high. Despite some mistakes along the way, I believe that this nation stands in history as a shining light and example for all nations to follow. I proclaim loudly and unashamedly my affection for the United States of America and I will join others willing to fight to keep this nation free. We cling to our Bibles and to our guns because we take responsibility for our safety, our actions, and ourselves. We bow to no one, -- no king, no international governing body and certainly not to the UN. We bow only to God, for it is to Him that we are ultimately accountable. We are Americans! We are the brave and the free!