The 4th of July 2009

**Pal334** · 07-02-2009, 05:54 PM

At the risk of jumping the proverbial gun. I would like to wish all a great 4th of July, our celebration of Independence!!
If you have a moment, please share what it means to you.

I get unabashedly weepy when I see our Stars and Stripes. I have had the distinct honor to serve our flag in many foreign countries as a military member and in civilian capacities. Not meaning to insult anyone, but there is no place like this country . Well, down off my soap box.

**wareagle69** · 07-02-2009, 06:14 PM

i still get goosebumps and my heart swells at the star spangled banner and also lee greenwoods "proud to be an american"

**Ken** · 07-02-2009, 06:17 PM

Thanks, Pal! Hope you have a great Independence Day as well!

I'll be leaving for Long Island, N.Y. first thing Friday morning. Going to a friend's wedding on the 4th. Keep the barbeque hot and save a burger for me. And a cold beer, too.

You all have a safe and fun weekend!

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**Pal334** · 07-02-2009, 06:25 PM

An ice cold beer and a burger,, now that is the 4th

I also bought a new Flag to fly. Mine is up 24 / 7 365, so need a new one each year.

And WE you are right lee greenwoods "proud to be an american"
should be the unofficial anthem

And my new avatar is just for the holiday

**Rick** · 07-02-2009, 06:46 PM

I tend to think of 56 men who, at the very real risk of death, put everything on the line for a chance at a new way of life. We tend to view them as heros. They were but they were also farmers and business men, military men and lawyers.

I also think of all the men and women since then who have served to uphold the fabric and framework of what those 56 men wrought. My life today is, in no short measure, a direct result of all their sacrifices. To all of them I owe a debt I can never repay.

**Tony uk** · 07-03-2009, 10:14 AM

Happy 4th of july to everyone in America. I hope you all enjoy the weekend

**trax** · 07-03-2009, 12:51 PM

Those 56 men also created a model that the rest of the world would do well to follow, Happy 4th to all my American friends. God bless America.

**nell67** · 07-03-2009, 12:53 PM

This will be a good one for me,my sister and her family will be here this evening from Florida,a miracle in its self with all the medical problems her youngest son has,I really did not think I would ever get to see the little one again,but he is a fighter and keeps on going,and such a little sweetheart.

Their visit was supposed to be a surprise for me,but another sister let the cat out of the bag yesterday,I know my shift at work this evening will be a slow one,gggrrrrrr!

**panch0** · 07-03-2009, 03:09 PM

Have a safe and great 4th of July weekend to all of youz. Don't forget to thank a soldier.

-frank

**oldsoldier** · 07-03-2009, 03:36 PM

Alan Larsen,Ronald Bentley, Jeff Hall, Charles Petrovich,

Each one of these brave Americans and friends gave the ultimate gift to each and everyone of us. The freedom to celebrate the 4th. R.I.P. my friends

**mcfd45** · 07-03-2009, 05:12 PM

Happy 4th to all of us. May we never forget the sacrifices those 56 made, the risk they took, and the great land they helped create.
Jeff

**Pal334** · 07-03-2009, 05:50 PM

Still a classic God Bless America!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCavKL2zdjM

**hoosierarcher** · 07-03-2009, 09:32 PM

They Swore an oath to, if required, to sacrifice their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to free this Land and preserve that Liberty. More than one Founding Father did lose all but honor. We can't even get more than 25% of our population to vote.
Still May God Bless America and Hold All that Serve in his hands and protect them.

**crashdive123** · 07-03-2009, 10:00 PM

The fourth of July is a celebration that means much to me as well. For me, it's a time to reflect on the sacrifices that so many have made so that we might have the freedoms that we do. This is taken from a speech given in 1981 that holds a lot of meaning to me.

For one who was born and grew up in the small towns of the Midwest, there is a special kind of nostalgia about the Fourth of July.

I remember it as a day almost as long-anticipated as Christmas. This was helped along by the appearance in store windows of all kinds of fireworks and colorful posters advertising them with vivid pictures.

No later than the third of July – sometimes earlier – Dad would bring home what he felt he could afford to see go up in smoke and flame. We'd count and recount the number of firecrackers, display pieces and other things and go to bed determined to be up with the sun so as to offer the first, thunderous notice of the Fourth of July.

I'm afraid we didn't give too much thought to the meaning of the day. And, yes, there were tragic accidents to mar it, resulting from careless handling of the fireworks. I'm sure we're better off today with fireworks largely handled by professionals. Yet there was a thrill never to be forgotten in seeing a tin can blown 30 feet in the air by a giant "cracker" – giant meaning it was about 4 inches long. But enough of nostalgia.

Somewhere in our growing up we began to be aware of the meaning of days and with that awareness came the birth of patriotism. July Fourth is the birthday of our nation. I believed as a boy, and believe even more today, that it is the birthday of the greatest nation on earth.

There is a legend about the day of our nation's birth in the little hall in Philadelphia, a day on which debate had raged for hours. The men gathered there were honorable men hard-pressed by a king who had flouted the very laws they were willing to obey. Even so, to sign the Declaration of Independence was such an irretrievable act that the walls resounded with the words "treason, the gallows, the headsman's axe," and the issue remained in doubt.

The legend says that at that point a man rose and spoke. He is described as not a young man, but one who had to summon all his energy for an impassioned plea. He cited the grievances that had brought them to this moment and finally, his voice falling, he said, "They may turn every tree into a gallows, every hole into a grave, and yet the words of that parchment can never die. To the mechanic in the workshop, they will speak hope; to the slave in the mines, freedom. Sign that parchment. Sign if the next moment the noose is around your neck, for that parchment will be the textbook of freedom, the Bible of the rights of man forever."

He fell back exhausted. The 56 delegates, swept up by his eloquence, rushed forward and signed that document destined to be as immortal as a work of man can be. When they turned to thank him for his timely oratory, he was not to be found, nor could any be found who knew who he was or how he had come in or gone out through the locked and guarded doors.

Well, that is the legend. But we do know for certain that 56 men, a little band so unique we have never seen their like since, had pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Some gave their lives in the war that followed, most gave their fortunes, and all preserved their sacred honor.

What manner of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, 11 were merchants and tradesmen, and nine were farmers. They were soft-spoken men of means and education; they were not an unwashed rabble. They had achieved security but valued freedom more. Their stories have not been told nearly enough.

John Hart was driven from the side of his desperately ill wife. For more than a year he lived in the forest and in caves before he returned to find his wife dead, his children vanished, his property destroyed. He died of exhaustion and a broken heart.

Carter Braxton of Virginia lost all his ships, sold his home to pay his debts, and died in rags. And so it was with Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Rutledge, Morris, Livingston and Middleton. Nelson personally urged Washington to fire on his home and destroy it when it became the headquarters for General Cornwallis. Nelson died bankrupt.

But they sired a nation that grew from sea to shining sea. Five million farms, quiet villages, cities that never sleep, 3 million square miles of forest, field, mountain and desert, 227 million people with a pedigree that includes the bloodlines of all the world. In recent years, however, I've come to think of that day as more than just the birthday of a nation. It also commemorates the only true philosophical revolution in all history.

Oh, there have been revolutions before and since ours. But those revolutions simply exchanged one set of rules for another. Ours was a revolution that changed the very concept of government.

Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people.

We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should.

**Mountain Man** · 07-03-2009, 10:15 PM

Happy 4th and don't lose and fingers, eyebrows, eyelids, or eyes

**oly** · 07-03-2009, 10:22 PM

The 4th is a major go camping holiday here and I'll just stay home and stay safe (way to many dangerous campers out there for me to enjoy the outdoors).
What I'm saying is enjoy and be safe while respecting those that has stood up and fought for what we have.