Reflections on America's 241st birthday
This Independence Day, Americans celebrated our 241st birthday. Our flag is still there, as expressed by Francis Scott Key in his 1814 poem, which he wrote after the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British ships in the War of 1812:
O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Is America still the land of the free and the home of the brave? Has the fundamental transformation of American left us with a country that would hardly be recognizable to the Founders? Here are some relevant articles worth reading:
Freedom and tyranny: the meaning of Independence Day, Canada Free Press, July 4, 2017:
... One of the greatest statements of political philosophy occurs in the preamble to the Declaration:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ––That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed . . .
Government is a creation of the sovereign people who must consent to its forms and functions. It is thus accountable to the people, and exists primarily to protect their rights, especially freedom, that precede government. These rights are the “unalienable” foundations of our human nature, and come from a “Creator” and the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God.” They are not gifts of the powerful or any institutions that an elite of wealth or birth create to serve their interests. They cannot justly be taken away by any earthly power, but they can be limited and destroyed by tyranny.
Central to these rights is freedom, which implies self-rule as well as the scope to pursue “happiness,” the actions and behaviors, the way of living that achieves a good and virtuous life suitable for a human being possessing reason and free will...
How an Elite Unit of Iron Men Saved George Washington’s Army and Changed History, Breitbart, July 4, 2017:
Washington’s Immortals tells the story of a heroic regiment that saved the Continental Army from destruction at the Battle of Brooklyn by holding the British at bay. Despite the pivotal importance of their sacrifice, the regimental dead are buried in a mass grave with only the most minimal markings, their story largely unknown to the modern public....
O’Donnell provides the answer to that question in the book he went on to write, Washington’s Immortals, telling an epic story of heroism and devotion that begins with the formation of the unit in Baltimore during the winter of 1774.
He said the men who signed up for the Immortals were motivated by a “variety of factors.”
“Liberty, freedom – they believed in a cause, and they were willing to throw their entire fortunes down the drain to do it,” he said...
Why We Celebrate The 4th Of July, Conservative Treehouse, July 4, 2017:
... The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation...
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness...
Those are the facts about our Declaration of Independence, the history that we as school children have learned since the creation of this great nation that we celebrate, that we love and honor so...
Today as we celebrate, today as we pledge allegiance to a flag that has gone from 13 stars to 50, may we remember not only the sacrifice, but the resolve. May we honor not only the words, but the unity and deeds of our forefathers. May each of us dig deep into our hearts and work out our differences for the betterment of our nation and our children and grandchildren...
The eternal meaning of Independence Day, Powerline, July 4, 2017.
The eternal meaning of Independence Day (2), Powerline, July 4, 2017:
President Calvin Coolidge celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1926, with a speech providing a magisterial review of the history and thought underlying the Declaration. His speech on the occasion deserves to be read and studied in its entirety. The following paragraph, however, is particularly relevant to the challenge that confronts us in the variants of the progressive dogma that pass themselves off today as the higher wisdom:
About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.
Where is America today?
Reagan to millennials: Why the left loathes the Declaration, by Bob Just, World Net Daily, July 4, 2017:
... Although the Constitution is certainly under threat (I believe from the socialist left that controls my party), it is the Declaration of Independence we must defend at all costs, for without it, the Constitution will certainly crumble...
Sadly, the “progressives” of my party have been undermining the Declaration for most of the last century simply by dismissing it as irrelevant. This is much more than ignorance. This is at the heart of the battle for Americanism, a sober thing for young citizens to consider since it will define the country they inherit...
The secular establishment’s rejection of our Judeo-Christian roots, makes genuine debate about Americanism nearly impossible. No wonder the Declaration is ignored...
Patriotism to Obama is an aggressive kind of Nationalism, by Judi McLeod, Canada Free Press, July 4, 2017:
... Independence Day 2017 is the first Independence Day without Barack Obama, and quite joyfully certainly not the last one.
The anti-American president who went so far out of his way not being there in any way for America, cutting off at significant personal expense any access to who he really was, is now, in all respects, really not there any more.
Obama’s advice that America shouldn’t be too patriotic, which he deviously attempts to pass off as ‘aggressive nationalism’ impresses no one, other than those in the same choir to which he always preached...
Is America still a nation? Are we passing on the house we inherited – or observing its demolition?, by Pat Buchanan, World Net Daily, July 4, 2017:
In Federalist No. 2, John Jay writes of them as “one united people … descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs. …”
If such are the elements of nationhood and peoplehood, can we still speak of Americans as one nation and one people?
We no longer have the same ancestors. They are of every color and from every country. We do not speak one language, but rather English, Spanish and a host of others. We long ago ceased to profess the same religion...
Federalist No. 2 celebrated our unity. Today’s elites proclaim that our diversity is our strength. But is this true, or a tenet of trendy ideology?
After the attempted massacre of Republican congressmen at that ball field in Alexandria, Fareed Zakaria wrote: “The political polarization that is ripping this country apart” is about “identity … gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation (and) social class.” He might have added – religion, morality, culture and history...
The Declaration No Longer Expresses 'The American Mind', by Ilana Mercer, American Thinker, July 4, 2017:
... Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration, called it "an expression of the American Mind." An examination of Jefferson's constitutional thought makes plain that he would no longer consider the collective mentality of contemporary Americans and their leaders "American" in any meaningful way. For the Jeffersonian mind was that of an avowed Whig -- an American Whig whose roots were in the English, Whig political philosophy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries...
The essence of this "pattern of ideas and attitudes," almost completely lost today, explains David N. Mayer in The Constitutional Thought of Thomas Jefferson, was a view of government as an inherent threat to liberty and the necessity for eternal vigilance...
Naturally, Jefferson never entertained the folly that he was of immigrant stock. He considered the English settlers of America courageous conquerors, much like his Saxon forebears, to whom he compared them. To Jefferson, early Americans were the contemporary carriers of the Anglo-Saxon project.
The settlers spilt their own blood "in acquiring lands for their settlement," he wrote with pride in “A Summary View of the Rights of British America.” "For themselves they fought, for themselves they conquered, and for themselves alone they have right to hold." Thus, they were "entitled to govern those lands and themselves."
Like it or not, Thomas Jefferson, author of The Declaration, was sired and inspired by the Anglo-Saxon tradition.
George Washington reads the Declaration of Independence