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This is a tad late, but I’ve been ruminating all day about how important July 4th is in the history of our country.

Why it’s not just hot dogs and fireworks, although the fireworks are an important tradition to uphold… Frankly, Independence day is more important than Thanksgiving, although we generally put a lot more time and effort into our Thanksgiving day plans and parties. This is the birthday of our COUNTRY. Second to the birthday (supposedly) of Christ, this is the second biggest day of the year, or should be.

Think about what these guys did, the brave, bold men who signed the Declaration of Independence on this day back in 1776. They were powerful men. Heads of colonies. Lawyers. Politicians. Wealthy land owners. These were men who had more than a life to give for his beliefs. By signing that piece of parchment, they put their lives, their families future… ALL that they held most dear, they bartered against one noble cause: FREEDOM. Freedom from an unjust monarchy an ocean away.

Without even uniting all of the colonists together before making a decision that would change the face of planet Earth in less than two centuries, these men pushed ‘all in’ and hoped against hope that their rag-tag army of farmers and field hands could take on the mighty forces of the well trained, well stocked forces of the English military that assuredly would be heading their way to squash their little ‘rebellion’.

Damn. What faith these guys had. What fearlessness. What fervor. What freaking NUTS.

We live in a complacent world, full of complacent people, watching as our freedoms evaporate in front of our eyes and do nothing. Do men like these, men of this quality and boldness even exist in our world? In our country? If they do… Can they stand against the modern machine without their little ‘rebellion’s being squashed?

I have no answer.

All I can do is bow my head and thank these people:

Delaware

• George Read 
• Caesar Rodney
• Thomas McKean

Pennsylvania
• George Clymer
• Benjamin Franklin
• Robert Morris
• John Morton
• Benjamin Rush
• George Ross
• James Smith
• James Wilson
• George Taylor

Massachusetts
• John Adams
• Samuel Adams
• John Hancock
• Robert Treat Paine
• Elbridge Gerry

New Hampshire
• Josiah Bartlett
• William Whipple
• Matthew Thornton

Rhode Island
• Stephen Hopkins
• William Ellery

New York
• Lewis Morris
• Philip Livingston
• Francis Lewis
• William Floyd

Georgia
• Button Gwinnett
• Lyman Hall
• George Walton

Virginia
• Richard Henry Lee
• Francis Lightfoot Lee
• Carter Braxton
• Benjamin Harrison
• Thomas Jefferson
• George Wythe
• Thomas Nelson, Jr.

North Carolina
• William Hooper
• John Penn
• Joseph Hewes

South Carolina
• Edward Rutledge
• Arthur Middleton
• Thomas Lynch, Jr.
• Thomas Heyward, Jr.

New Jersey
• Abraham Clark
• John Hart
• Francis Hopkinson
• Richard Stockton
• John Witherspoon

Connecticut
• Samuel Huntington
• Roger Sherman
• William Williams
• Oliver Wolcott

Maryland
• Charles Carroll
• Samuel Chase
• Thomas Stone
• William Paca

Without these men, we would still be a colony. Without these men, we would not have changed the world. God bless them all.

And Happy Birthday, America.

When I was young, I thought myself a liberal. I was against government controlling everything. I was against the government taxing me to death. I was for freedom of expression, freedom of thought and action. I was against bigotry and intolerance toward people of opposing views. And I was an agnostic.

Then I grew up. And you know what has changed about me? I became a Bible believing Christian. You know what has changed about these views? NOTHING. I’m against government controlling everything. I’m against the government taxing me to death. I’m for freedom of expression, freedom of thought and action. I am against bigotry and intolerance toward people of opposing views.

My understanding of how the world should be hasn’t changed. It turns out I’m a conservative.

It is the liberals who want larger government that intrudes into every nook and cranny of your life. It’s liberals who want higher taxes on anything and everything and on anyone and everyone (even though that’s not the ‘party’ line). It’s the liberals who are against freedom of expression, thought and action if it’s against their personal dogma. It’s liberals who are bigoted and intolerant toward those who don’t toe their party line beliefs in abortion, religion, gay rights and recently and most vociferously, GLOBAL WARMING. Apparently my most misunderstood concept of my youth was not how the world should work… it was my understanding of what it really meant to be a ‘liberal’.

My question to you is, if you agree with everything I said in the first paragraph but still call yourself a liberal, isn’t it time you grew up too?