Enjoy Your Freedoms
This week we will be celebrating Independence Day. Time again where we have reached the mid-point of summer and we head to the river and lakes, beaches and parks, the mountains and backyards for American activities such as swimming, barbecue, hot dogs and apple pie. Then we all settle down at dusk for firework shows where we enjoy watching the sky be lit up with beautiful displays. Just another paid holiday where we get the day off and are able to relax, right?
Well, for some yes. However, as a society, have we forgotten why we celebrate this day? Sadly, with what is happening around our great nation, it seems many have done just that – forgotten.
Why, exactly, do we celebrate July 4th each year? What does it mean to have Independence Day?
On July 4, 1776, 13 British colonies declared their independence from England. Over the past several months tensions had grown between colonists and England, with many events leading up to the official breakup. At the time, the colonies were under British rule and subject to the king. The colonists were mostly British subjects and even war heroes. As such, they were expected to pay taxes to the monarchy as were all Britons. However, since they lived in the colonies, they were not represented in government.
With distance and a spirit of independence, many colonists wanted to break away from British rule. An especially contentious subject was the fact they were forced to pay heavy taxes but had no say in governmental affairs in their homeland and often even in the colonies of their current residence.
Representatives of the colonies convened a Continental Congress in Philadelphia during the summer of 1776. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia presented a resolution with the words” “Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”
There was much debate about the subject of breaking from England, as many colonists were loyal to the crown. After heated discussion, consideration of the resolution was postponed by a vote of seven colonies to five, with New York abstaining.
A Committee of Five was appointed to draft a statement presenting to the world the case for the colonies to become independent.
Members of the Committee included John Adams of Massachusetts; Roger Sherman of Connecticut; Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Robert Livingston of New York; and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. The task of drafting the document went to Jefferson.
On July 1, 1776, the Continental Congress reconvened and on the next day and was adopted by a vote of 12-1, with New York again abstaining. After a few minor revisions, Jefferson’s document, the Declaration of Independence, was adopted.
The rest, as they say, is history. The colonists went on to fight for independence and became the United States of America. These great men and many others fought, gave up their fortunes, and died, just so we could have the freedoms very few have enjoyed during the history of the world. Freedoms of speech, the press, religion, peaceful assembly, right to bear arms and many more.
As I watch what is happening in our nation today, I am deeply troubled that many want these freedoms taken away. Americans are the only ones who protest to have freedoms removed. That’s not what we should stand for.
Enjoy your freedoms and fight for them, because one day you might not have them.
Randy Gibson is the CEO of RDG Communications Group, LLC, and the former director of the Tahlequah Area Chamber of Commerce and the Texas State Rifle Association.
