The 4th of July brings back fond memories of going to the beach or the lake or someone’s back yard for fun and good food.  As we grow older we are told of the significance of the date and what happened many years ago on that special day.  While doing some research for this article, I found a letter Ronald Reagan had written in 1981 that really brought out some emotions on what the day meant to those that signed their names to the Declaration of Independance.  The full letter can be found here

There is a legend about the day of our nation’s birth in the little hall in Philadelphia, a day on which debate had raged for hours. The men gathered there were honorable men hard-pressed by a king who had flouted the very laws they were willing to obey. Even so, to sign the Declaration of Independence was such an irretrievable act that the walls resounded with the words “treason, the gallows, the headsman’s axe,” and the issue remained in doubt.

The legend says that at that point a man rose and spoke. He is described as not a young man, but one who had to summon all his energy for an impassioned plea. He cited the grievances that had brought them to this moment and finally, his voice falling, he said, “They may turn every tree into a gallows, every hole into a grave, and yet the words of that parchment can never die. To the mechanic in the workshop, they will speak hope; to the slave in the mines, freedom. Sign that parchment. Sign if the next moment the noose is around your neck, for that parchment will be the textbook of freedom, the Bible of the rights of man forever.”

He fell back exhausted. The 56 delegates, swept up by his eloquence, rushed forward and signed that document destined to be as immortal as a work of man can be. When they turned to thank him for his timely oratory, he was not to be found, nor could any be found who knew who he was or how he had come in or gone out through the locked and guarded doors.

The letter goes on to remind you that the people who signed their name that day were successful already.  They had good lives already.  They had much to lose by being there.  What they all had in common was the belief that we were all created in the image and likeness of God.  Because of that, they knew we all had the freedom to live our lives as we wish and to be able to pursue Life, Liberty and Happiness and no man can take that from us.  The 4th of July is an excellent day to remember those inspired men and what they started that day.  Its an excellent day to remember where we live and the limitless possibilities that are in our grasp because of what was started over 200 hundred years ago. 

To close, I would like to close with another quote from the same letter:

Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people.

We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should.

Happy 4th of July.  Be SAFE and pursue your DREAMS

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