Getting personal....
I write a column for my work e-newsletter each week. Given that Friday is my country's birthday, that is in my mind. My government is incredibly maddening lately, but I love my country.
This week.. I share my column.. it's sappy, and corny, and unabashedly pro-America.
I'm going to get personal with you this week. My first love was politics. Not the wrangling deal-making often ugly thing most people think of as "politics" but politics as in the application of political science to American government.
When I was a little girl, I remember watching Richard Nixon stand at the top of that airplane staircase, raise his arms, wave his hands and relinquish the Presidency of the United States of America. He, the Commander-in-Chief of one of the largest, most powerful militaries on the planet, just walked away. No guns. No tanks. No barricading himself & his advisors in the White House. No coup. He just stepped down and walked away.
As I watched that televised live, I was awestruck and overwhelmed with love for a country that holds as its prime document a Constitution that puts the country, and her people, first. And does so peacefully. Of the people. By the people. For the people. I was literally dumbfounded with wonder at the knowledge that the USA and her people would just move on with a new President; where else could that possibly happen? Amazing.
232 years ago Friday, a document was signed that changed the course of history. It was an expansion of Henry Lee's July 2nd resolution proclaiming independence and was actually signed on that day by only one man, John Hancock (The other 55 signed it about a month later on August 2nd.) The declaration has a rather exhaustive detail of the reasons the colonists felt they MUST break away from England and her King, by armed conflict if necessary.
Most importantly, to me, are two sections: 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. And the last line . . . 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.
It wasn't an easy road for them and couldn't have been an easy decision. Nine of the signers died from wounds suffered in the Revolutionary War. Five were captured by the British and charged as traitors being cruelly tortured before being executed. Another two lost their sons in the Revolutionary War, eight had their homes looted, their possessions scattered to the four winds. Carter Braxton was a man of means when he signed the Declaration - but he died with little more than the clothing on his back. Thomas McKeam faced the same fate, losing all his wealth hiding his family from the British. Others weren't even able to protect their families. Hart, Norris, and Livingston lost everything they held dear in the world . . . their home, their land, and their cherished families.
Enjoy this weekend. Enjoy your family, your friends, your time - please be safe. But, I hope you find a quiet moment, maybe as you watch fireworks or see an American flag billowing in the breeze, to say a prayer of thanks for those men (and their families) for having the incredible courage and willingness to throw everything into the breach for the dream we live -America. She isn't perfect, but she still makes me awestruck with wonder that she exists at all and that I am blessed to be a citizen of the greatest experiment ever conceived by man.
Happy 4th of July!
This week.. I share my column.. it's sappy, and corny, and unabashedly pro-America.
I'm going to get personal with you this week. My first love was politics. Not the wrangling deal-making often ugly thing most people think of as "politics" but politics as in the application of political science to American government.
When I was a little girl, I remember watching Richard Nixon stand at the top of that airplane staircase, raise his arms, wave his hands and relinquish the Presidency of the United States of America. He, the Commander-in-Chief of one of the largest, most powerful militaries on the planet, just walked away. No guns. No tanks. No barricading himself & his advisors in the White House. No coup. He just stepped down and walked away.
As I watched that televised live, I was awestruck and overwhelmed with love for a country that holds as its prime document a Constitution that puts the country, and her people, first. And does so peacefully. Of the people. By the people. For the people. I was literally dumbfounded with wonder at the knowledge that the USA and her people would just move on with a new President; where else could that possibly happen? Amazing.
232 years ago Friday, a document was signed that changed the course of history. It was an expansion of Henry Lee's July 2nd resolution proclaiming independence and was actually signed on that day by only one man, John Hancock (The other 55 signed it about a month later on August 2nd.) The declaration has a rather exhaustive detail of the reasons the colonists felt they MUST break away from England and her King, by armed conflict if necessary.
Most importantly, to me, are two sections: 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. And the last line . . . 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.
It wasn't an easy road for them and couldn't have been an easy decision. Nine of the signers died from wounds suffered in the Revolutionary War. Five were captured by the British and charged as traitors being cruelly tortured before being executed. Another two lost their sons in the Revolutionary War, eight had their homes looted, their possessions scattered to the four winds. Carter Braxton was a man of means when he signed the Declaration - but he died with little more than the clothing on his back. Thomas McKeam faced the same fate, losing all his wealth hiding his family from the British. Others weren't even able to protect their families. Hart, Norris, and Livingston lost everything they held dear in the world . . . their home, their land, and their cherished families.
Enjoy this weekend. Enjoy your family, your friends, your time - please be safe. But, I hope you find a quiet moment, maybe as you watch fireworks or see an American flag billowing in the breeze, to say a prayer of thanks for those men (and their families) for having the incredible courage and willingness to throw everything into the breach for the dream we live -America. She isn't perfect, but she still makes me awestruck with wonder that she exists at all and that I am blessed to be a citizen of the greatest experiment ever conceived by man.
Happy 4th of July!