As I reflect on what July 4th means to me as an American I sometimes just wonder – what does it all mean?

As I reflect on what July 4th means to me as an American I sometimes just wonder – what does it all mean?

July 4th, 1776, the day we declared independence from Britain, this was not the day we became America, it was more like the 2 week notice you give your employer describing your intentions before leaving. We said we have had enough of the tyranny and are going to do something about it. It was only after 5 years of fighting the revolutionary war and 2 more years of politicing that the war of Independence was actually won, in fact we took our independence. We knew before July 4th 1776 that the relationship between us lowly Colonies and the British empire was going to cross paths, in a bad way. That is why in June of 1775 we upstarts were seeking to coordinate our military efforts. That is why the Continental Congress established, on paper, a regular army and appointed George Washington as Commander-in-Chief. After 5 years of war General George Washington forced General Cornwallis (the supreme commander of the British Army) to surrender the Second British Army in Yorktown Virginia. After whooping their butts it took two more years to draw up the Treaty of Paris that was signed on September 3rd 1783 that recognized the sovereignty of the United States over the territory bounded by what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south, and as far west as the Mississippi river. Even though the document was not ratified by the Congress of the Confederation until January 14th 1784 and the King of Britain until April 9th of 1784 with the exchange of documents on May 12th the common date for the end of the war is 1783.

So us Colonists were weary of what we thought were unfair taxes, like the Sugar Act of 1764 and the Stamp Act of 1765 taxing paper and sugar. So pissed off were we Colonist’s that we formed a Stamp Act Congress and made a formal statement of protest. The Stamp Act was done away with the following year but the damage (from a British perspective) was done. The American people had been able to voice their concerns to the Monarchy and were able to get a tax repealed. Another troublesome tax was the Tea Act, which told Americans that they could buy tea from only one company, the British East India Company. The result of this unfair tax was the well known Boston Tea Party, in which members of the Sons of Libery, disguised as Native Americans, dumped 342 whole crates of British tea into Boston harbor on December 16, 1773. The British actually enacted the Boston Port Act thereby closing the port of Boston until the price of the dumped tea was recovered. The fighting really began almost without warning, the next thing we knew Paul Revere was on his famous ride to let the people of Lexington and Concord know that the British were coming.

So if we fast forward to present day, we seem to be more about the day off but really do not know a lot or understand the reasons we waged that war, most are happy to believe that it was taxation without representation but that was only part of the repressive nature of the British Empire. That is OK though, we Americans are pretty much an arrogant lot and we, by and large, think we have a great entitlement just being born here. We are lucky to have been born here that is for sure but if we do not understand what being American really means we will continue to follow the course of most of the dominate empires throughout history. They have honorable and deeply held beliefs in the beginning, the growth of the empire over time moves them into a badass state in which they just feel absolutely invincible as a nation. When they reach the apex of power, they get cocky and start doing things for the wrong reasons, most of the passion that got revolution going in the first place is gone. From there it is a steady decline in power and stature, mainly because of arrogance of the rulers and apathy of the people. Do a little study and you can track the path of many major empires, The Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians and so on. It scares me sometimes that we Americans seem incapable of learning from our past.

I do not want anyone to forget what today is really about, it is not just about hot dogs, apple pie and fireworks. It is about celebrating the birth of America, and all that that means. I know we are going to get through the current economic hard times, we will get through it with American ingenuity and hard work. I believe when we come out the other side we are going to be smarter overall, I hope we are more demanding of our public officials, I hope we are become better people overall from the experience. I hope these things because there are a lot of big problems that need solved after that and it is my hope we can use these economic hard times to learn how to buckle down and work together in a truly collaborative way to keep America great and keep us on the forefront of all things. Basically I hope we can continue to fulfill our founding fathers dreams and aspirations.

I love America and consider myself very fortunate to an American and plan on enjoying my Independence Day.