Today is our Independence Day. Tired of overtaxation and under-representation, the 13 original colonies sent men to Philadelphia to write an appropriate list of grievances to their King and declare him but another man, no longer imbued with power by his Creator. Instead, they said that all men were created equal, born poor or rich, born landed or serf, all men were given rights by their God that none should tear them asunder.
Liberty is among those rights. The freedom to act with accordance to your own personal code and to the code of the land. Our Constitution and its Bill of Rights was a revolutionary document in the history of governance. No longer did the autocratic or the plutocratic control the people, but learned men chosen by those people to govern in their stead.
Sadly, most of the men and women I see governing in this town would shame the Founders. Trying to legislate things they don’t understand, holding men without writs of habeus corpus or on no charges with no trial date in sight, and spying upon Americans’ phone and bank records. The beauty of America is her fragile balance between freedom and the Tyranny of Evil Men. If we are too free, that Tyranny comes from abroad and seeks to damage it. If we are too gullible, though, that Tyranny comes from within and seeks to destroy it.
I realize that the balance between outside threats and inside freedoms is a difficult one, and I hope today that those who watch the parades, crank ice cream, enjoy the fireworks understand that the battle that we are facing today isn’t just with outside enemies who wish to kill us for not believing in their violent and oppressive God, but also from those who seek to guard imaginary safety with violence, fear and the rule of oppressive law.
There are truly foes on both sides to face, as there always will be in a free society.
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self control,
Thy liberty in law.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.
