The Real Meaning of Independence Day

It’s Friday, July 4, 2014, and Americans everywhere are firing up their grills and pulling out their stockpiles of technicolor ordnance to celebrate Independence Day. For most, eating too much meat and watching fireworks with the kids is about as far as this celebration will go. And most will never really consider what we are celebrating.
Yesterday, I was at a fireworks display with my kids, and the announcer said today was all about being thankful for the armed forces—for those people who were willing to die to protect our freedoms. I thought that was Memorial Day. Or Veteran’s Day. Unless you count WWII, no one has spilled blood to protect my constitutional freedoms since Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appommatox. Drone killing “suspected” terrorists along with innocent civilians, propping up (or toppling) foreign dictators, and providing firepower for UN coalitions doesn’t count in my book.

In the 18th century, Independence Day commemorated an act of extraordinary courage. Against overwhelming odds, a loosely connected group of colonial governments decided to band together against the greatest empire in the world. We know how the story ended, but they didn’t. By all outward appearances, they had every assurance of failure. A modern-day parallel would be a few pre-industrial third-world countries coming together and declaring war on the United States.

And the craziest thing about it all is that the colonies actually won. They won because they refused to bend their principles to pragmatism. They refused to give up their convictions. They refused to allow fear and security to trump faith and freedom. And these weren’t just buzzwords for ’Merica then. These men and women died for these ideas.

And what’s left of that patriotic fire? We submit gladly to much heavier taxes and exceedingly more tyrannical intrusions from our civil authorities. We bicker about Republicans and Democrats being in office when the entirety of Washington is bent on our subjugation. So much of what was going on in 1776 is occurring again on this same soil. And those who once bled to rid this land of tyranny are in jeopardy of having died in vain while we sheep-like feed on the panem et circenses of bratwursts and fireworks.

I encourage you to read the Declaration of Independence today. (reprinted below)
But recognize the condition we are in. We don’t have a single enemy like our forefathers did. They could send their grievances to one man—King George. We have more than just one man to blame. Obama may have taken to himself some monarchical powers, but the fact is that Washington, DC now plays the part of King George. Consider just a few of the grievances of the original American patriots, and consider how the whole of our civil government is now repeating those grievances:

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. . . . He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. . . . For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

These grievances are connected. The Federal Government refuses to allow states to rule their own citizens with laws confirmed by the citizens of those states. The Supreme Court regularly overturns local laws, federal bureaucracies routinely encroach on local law enforcement, and state and county governments—the people’s governments—have no real authority to represent the will of the actual people of this country. Local representatives have no say in how this country is governed. That is the worst form of “dissolved Representative Houses.” At least in the case of King George, he made the dissolution publicly apparent. We have it much worse because we are led to believe we actually retain local representative houses. But these are feckless titular bodies hollowed out of any real power.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

The GOP and DNC have rigged the electoral system to maintain power without the consent of the governed. One of the major ways they do this is to hold delegate conventions at locations that are not publicly disclosed, or by changing the venue for delegation conventions when the victory of the mainstream favorite is in question. By maintaining complete control over who is on the ballot, the GOP and DNC have disfigured the American democratic process and called the legitimacy of the sitting government into question.
Furthermore, the federal government “fatigues us into compliance” by making the process of petition and redress impossibly convoluted. They have created a virtual distance that is unusual and uncomfortable.

. . . He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

Wow. Do you really need any application for this grievance? Whatever Offices King George may have erected, he’s got nothing on the current federal government.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

The entirety of our massive standing army—including the purportedly state-controlled National Guard—is under the direct control of the Federal government. Our local police are also becoming increasingly militarized—often through federal subsidies. The majority of states do not have a proper state militia. We are more vulnerable than our forefathers by far.

. . . He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation . . .

The United Nations is a perfect example of this today. There is no reason at all why we should be concerned at all with legislation the UN has created. But, alas, our civil authorities have “given assent to their acts of pretended legislation,” so we are bound to abide by it.

. . . For protecting [troops], by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

Brutality from the federally militarized police and the federal cronies for “homeland defense” regularly goes uninvestigated and unpunished.

. . . For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

Oh my. Since Obamacare has been called a tax, it is just the most recent and largest of taxes imposed on us without our consent. But the list is long and varied. In fact, our forefathers didn’t have to put up with anywhere near the kind of taxation we do.

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

Thanks to the pathetic provisions of the misnamed PATRIOT Act, you can be held without a trial and even without charges, tried by a military tribunal without being present at the trial, and subject to any number of abuses and intrusions … “legally.” Again, the founding fathers spilled their blood for far less than this.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us . . .

That is the nature of the false narratives of racism, sexism, and homophobia. These are nothing more than the excitations of domestic insurrection to continue thrusting this country into perpetual unrest. A divided country is much easier to rule.

And why are Americans so willing to put up with this prodigious list of abuses? The Founding Fathers had a reason for that as well:

. . . All experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 1 

As bad as things have gotten, this is what we are used to now. Like the proverbial frogs, we don’t even realize we’re nearly cooked. We don’t even think about it anymore.
But, even if you don’t think of it any other day, please consider it today: You have no independence left to celebrate. This Independence Day, like many that have preceded it, is a sham. We are all dependents on and subjects to a tyrannical government. But it may not be too late to recover what the Founding Fathers left to us. There may yet be enough of the original system left to retake the governance of this country from parasites and wastrels. But it will not be easy.

This Independence Day, consider the small band of men who signed their names to what amounted to a death warrant for the slim chance that they could live free for a few more months and possibly secure a free future for their children. They risked it all to secure liberty for themselves and their children. What you are willing to risk? 

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, 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; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

From "The Last Resistance".

1 - This is uncannily similar to a phrase in Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy, and I would be surprised if Jefferson didn’t have it in mind: “makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of.”