Enjoy your brats, fireworks, and spending time with family today. But don't forget to take at least one minute to reflect on what this holiday is all about. Chris Truscott has posted the Declaration of Independence here.
This country is what it is because of the sacrifices our citizens have made. Each generation has made sacrifices that have sustained our nation. With the Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers took an enormous risk and set into motion a bloody, nearly impossible-to-win war against the world's most powerful army. Against all odds, our country prevailed.
Our very democracy took tremendous sacrifice to create. After the Revolutionary War, the Articles of Confederation which loosely held our states together were clearly not working. Our founding fathers spent months recreating our government under the Constitution, a document that still seems forward-looking after over 200 years. Our first president, George Washington, made the ultimate sacrifice by declining a kingship and limiting his service as president to two terms. With the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800, we achieved a peaceful transfer of power between parties, something which has proved to be a stumbling block for so many early democracies.
These days, we have a tendency to treat our holidays as nothing more than three-day weekends. It's important that we not forget the meaning behind them. Today, please take a moment to think about the sacrifices that have been made so that we can live in such a prosperous nation. Perhaps even more importantly, ask yourself this: what would you be willing to sacrifice for our country?
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