Just think that 233 years ago; the continental congress was in the final hours of deliberating what to do. They decided to risk everything so we could have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They stood up to the oppression of a King’s rule across the ocean, under penalty of certain death so that one day our citizens would have the right to call 911 over missing McNuggets and French Fries. How pathetic have we become? Suck it up Americans and do something great once more.

Liberty came at a heavy price; don’t squander the investment by trading liberty for entitlements. Be something exceptional. Uplift each other. Support one another. Not out of governmental quotas but out of brotherly love. Do the right thing, not out of regulation but integrity of character.

Clean up your messes, care for the sick, help the poor by teaching them how to fish and how to farm. Build industry, don’t tear it down. Clean up your streets. Capture those that would commit crimes. Rise above and stand up for liberty for others.

Take care of your resources. Use them don’t hoard them. Do what you must do. Be entrepreneurs and alchemists alike. Take the land you have and make it produce. Take the community you live in and serve it with a product or service. Do the best thing you can do to help and eliminate your need for dependence. Celebrate independence by becoming independent.

I am a first generation American. My parents were refugees, they were sick, they were beaten and oppressed. You liberated their countries and they sought you out to become one of you.  In 1976 my father was sworn in as an American citizen. I was just 5 years old and I remember the day. I know of Americas greatness first hand.

Today our elected officials barter with each other, trading the wealth of their constituents like poker chips in a growing pot for pet legislation and earmarks. Selling out restrictions on liberty in exchange for pork and more pork. Citizens vote for entitlements not liberty and cast off the heritage that freed the world in exchange for a caretaker.

And so it begins to end? Or perhaps not?

What will I do? I will pursue happiness.  I will pursue independence. I will never give up. I will suffer defeat and set back, but I will carry on.

And you who would do this; trade your liberty for cheeseburgers and teeth cleaning? You believe in rights of entitlements and government guarantees? You have already decided that forever you will not be free anymore. You are wards of the state. You are dependents not independents. A conflict of interest on every vote. Inseparable from the motive of your vote. You are in it for you. And you are part of the masses. You vote to punish, to take away, to levy charges and enforce punishment. You take away life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in exchange for what? What do you think you deserve? You do not realize that you are voting for slavemenship to the state. That you are selling your liberty and taking away others in a trade for entitlements. How is it any different? How is it right? Where is the justice in this?

It’s been said that history repeats itself. How tragic is that? That we don’t learn from the fall of other democracy and preserve our republic. That we go from protecting individual liberty to the oppression of the majority? How tragic to vote to take away from the minority? And so it is today.

Your congress has for too long acted with no more accountability to their constituents; other than bribes and earmarks. To take the money from others to give to their own. To serve as Lords over the people, taking away and giving back. How tragic. How tragic that our Lords lie to us, and we know that they do. While promising not to levy new taxes they levy new fees on industry. Who will pay these fees? The customers of utility companies, the owners of homes, the sellers of homes, the buyers of products. How is it that a fee on tea is not considered a tax? How gross is this? Where will it end? What is too much? What’s my fee? Tell me? Is there a fee I can pay to be left alone? No. There is no more liberty. I am trapped. They will come for me.

All I know to do is to work to escape the oppression of my masters. To earn and try to buy my freedom. To pay the taxes and leans against me. As they rise, pay them again. As they decide to take more, pay more.

I go to war? No. I go to business. I go out and risk it all. I fight for others, for my employees, for our shareholders. It’s what I do. I will do what I can to take the tiny bit of freedom that I still have and leverage it into something better for my family and community.

I pray that today you would consider the same. And the next time you have the chance to take a freedom away from someone else, you say no. If the Feds offer you a handout, you say no. You say NO! What’s in it for you? Nothing. Suck it up. Stand on your own and do what’s right. You are either proud of your independence or not. Choose wisely.

On this day, remember that it was others that chose to risk everything so that you may be free. They voted to cut themselves off. They voted to preserve justice. They voted against taxes. They risked it all and many of them gave it all. And what have we done with the liberty they gave? We’ve voted to gradually take it away.

No other country in all of history has done so much to ensure the liberty of so many. It’s called freedom but it was not free. It came at a tremendous price and a tremendous risk. It started as a declaration. What declaration shall you make? What now will you do?

-d