Happy Independence Day 2025

[theGinsue]

For most of the world, the 4th of July is just another day on the calendar. But for Americans, we celebrate this day in remembrance of those who came before us to separate from a tyrannical government and form a new and independent nation where individuals could be free to decide their own destiny.

The 4th of July was chosen as our Independence Day because it marks the date the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, officially declaring the thirteen American colonies independent from Great Britain.

There were 56 delegates who eventually signed the Declaration to the cause of American independence. These signers, whom we've come to call our "Founding Fathers" pledged their "lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor" for the ideal of individual liberty, freedom!

Of these signers, five signers were captured as traitors by the British; they were tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the revolutionary war.

These 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. Yet, they felt the ideal of freedom for themselves and their posterity (that's YOU and ME!) was worth every sacrifice they might be called to give.

It is estimated that approximately 1.3 million men and women have died in service to our nation during and since the Revolutionary War. Like our Founding Fathers, these brave men and women pledged their "lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor" to help ensure the cause of liberty continued to live on.

Today, there are many among us who don't recognize the value of true freedom. These people fall prey to the promises of security, safety and government support at the cost of their liberty. One of the Declaration signers, Benjamin Franklin, is attributed to saying "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety". He is also quoted as saying (in part) "but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes,". With liberty, you have the possibility of peace, safety and security, but there are no guarantees. Without liberty, you only have the promise of the yoke of slavery. Essential liberty, once given up, can never be restored and is lost forever - for yourselves and for your posterity.

So today, as you fire up the grill or set off/enjoy fireworks which symbolize the "rockets red glare", I ask you to pause for just a moment and consider what today is really about. Consider the cost of your freedom and what it means for yourselves and your families.


Happy Independence Day!


AviSocVyEWI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AviSocVyEWI

[Firehaus]

Well said. Happy Independence Day!


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[flogger]

Ditto that Ginsue, I have a book somewhere giving a short history of all the signers, ballsy group of guys!

Happy 4th to everyone!

[beast556]

Well said. Happy Independence Day!


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+1
Happy independence day!!!! Dont blow your hands off.

[HoneyBadger]

Happy Independence Day everyone! Do yourself a favor and read the text of the Declaration of Independence:

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 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 God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 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, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. 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.



Georgia

Button Gwinnett

Lyman Hall

George Walton



North Carolina

William Hooper

Joseph Hewes

John Penn



South Carolina

Edward Rutledge

Thomas Heyward, Jr.

Thomas Lynch, Jr.

Arthur Middleton



Massachusetts

John Hancock


Maryland

Samuel Chase

William Paca

Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll of Carrollton



Virginia

George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Carter Braxton



Pennsylvania

Robert Morris

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Franklin

John Morton

George Clymer

James Smith

George Taylor

James Wilson

George Ross


Delaware

Caesar Rodney

George Read

Thomas McKean



New York

William Floyd

Philip Livingston

Francis Lewis

Lewis Morris



New Jersey

Richard Stockton

John Witherspoon

Francis Hopkinson

John Hart

Abraham Clark



New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett

William Whipple

Matthew Thornton



Massachusetts

Samuel Adams

John Adams

Robert Treat Paine

Elbridge Gerry



Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins

William Ellery



Connecticut

Roger Sherman

Samuel Huntington

William Williams

Oliver Wolcott

[wctriumph]

Happy 4th!

[buffalobo]

We like the reading of DOI by John F Kennedy. I play it for whoever might be visiting each year.

For us Independence Day is always a double celebration, Mrs bo shares the day of birth with our nation and we are very proud of America and to be Americans.

Many Independence traditions, listen to DOI reading, listen to patriotic historical speeches. Several universities put out patriotic historical audio programs. Call all the kids and grandkids to remind them of the importance of the day, listen to patriotic music.

Then we celebrate Mrs bo with great food and drink and fireworks(she thinks they are for her).

In fact one of the most important Independance Day traditions is almost finished.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250704/47989f16ac0989a963728a08e1d108a5.jpg

If you're unarmed, you are a victim

[Firehaus]

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[BushMasterBoy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq33nGinQng

[rfenster]

Thanks Ginsue, HoneyBadger, BushMasterBoy and everyone!

Where's the 'like' button when you need one?

Happy Fourth of July!

[theGinsue]

Happy Independence Day everyone! Do yourself a favor and read the text of the Declaration of Independence:

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 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 God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 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, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world......

<edited for quoting brevity>



This Declaration was and still is an amazing document and I wouldn't change a thing. BUT... I'm often accused of being a bit long-winded (alright, who said "a bit?"). Aaaaand, anyone who says this is 100% correct. The Declaration is quite a long-winded document. I think, especially in cases like the Declaration of Independence, being clear and detailed about your desires and intentions is critical; even more so when you're effectively telling your government (King) to fuck off. Our language has changed significantly over the past 249 years. They wrote and spoke so much more eloquently in 1776 than we do now. Due to the language changes, reading and fully understanding the content and the intent of this document takes time - time I still believe EVERY American citizen should take with regularity.




We like the reading of DOI by John F Kennedy. I play it for whoever might be visiting each year.

For us Independence Day is always a double celebration, Mrs bo shares the day of birth with our nation and we are very proud of America and to be Americans.
Then we celebrate Mrs bo with great food and drink and fireworks(she thinks they are for her).



I knew nothing about this reading until your mention of it here. I've now found it and downloaded it from the Kennedy Library. Thank you for mentioning it.

Please wish the Mrs., from me, a very Happy Birthday and congratulations on another successful year (even though we've never met).




Thanks Ginsue, HoneyBadger, BushMasterBoy and everyone!

Where's the 'like' button when you need one?

Happy Fourth of July!

You are most welcome. It is my honor!

- T