It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a Free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defense of it.
It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a Free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defense of it.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Do you enjoy the projection of a free government?
It may be hard to fathom what really transpired on this continent 247 years ago.
As we navigate our paths around our country without a second thought, while speaking our mind freely on any topic of our choosing, while enjoying a general sense of security that we are liberated from any danger from foreign adversaries, it all just feels, “normal.”
But it wasn’t always like this.
Before AI, the internet, the iPhone, the computer… heck even before there was stereo, we were a nation of settlers, trying to maintain our lives as subjects of the British Empire. Our freedoms, as we know them, did not exist. If you criticized King George, you could be arrested and executed for such a crime.
Enough concerned citizens recognized that there must be a better solution, and so they acted on that impulse. They committed treason to their loyalty to the crown, and descended upon Boston with cannon fire from the hill above, in an attempt to overthrow the British regime. By British definition, these people were insurrectionists, and terrorists, trying to topple the existing status quo.
Almost 250 years later, we revere them as our “Founding Fathers,” and we celebrate this day as the anniversary of the signing of the immortal Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal.”
One hundred years later, Abraham Lincoln would share that he believed that statement was written for posterity purposes, for it had no true meaning in relationship to the Declaration of Independence.
But there was hardly a consensus then, just as there is hardly a consensus now. John Adams, a highly pious individual asserted, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” I find it important to note that he qualified this as “moral and religious,” for (in my humble opinion) the two variables are fully separate from one another and are not necessarily common within both categories.
Those rebels (traitors), overthrew the existing regime and took control of this territory, thereby garnering liberty for all. But, as George Bernard Shaw stated, “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” And Eleanor Roosevelt put it most aptly in stating, “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.
It is great to be free! It is great to have liberty…. But these are just like the truth…. Can you really handle these responsibilities, or are they concepts that you appreciate, so long as others do it all for you?
Happy Independence Day!
https://brianweiner.com
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