from Glenn Beck:
Anyway, I wanted to take a minute of your time today to talk about one thing: independence.
On this day in 1776, the founders declared America’s independence from Britain. Everybody knows this – but the fact we tend to gloss over is that the fight wasn’t finished right then and there. They kept fighting for that freedom until 1783, over seven years of bloody struggle and sacrifice. In fact, “we the people” didn’t adopt our Constitution until 1787, more than 11 years after those 56 men gathered in a room and signed their name to a piece of parchment that said there’s a better way for men and women to live: in freedom.
On July 4th, 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote some of the greatest most powerful words in all of history: 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.
These words are powerful because they are true, and they are self-evident. We don’t need to look it up on some fact checking website. Somehow, we just know it’s right – and that is why the founders and the revolutionaries spent the better part of a decade fighting to bring those words to life. And that is why big government progressives so desperately seek to marginalize them and ‘progress’ away from them. Because they know those words, those self-evident truths, are the only thing preventing them from obtaining the power they seek.
It’s a scary thought to wonder what happens if they succeed.
You see, freedom is very fragile – in fact, only 5% of all the civilized world throughout history has ever lived with the kind of freedoms we enjoy here in America. That 5% share a frightening commonality: when they lose their freedom, that’s it. They never get it back. And many did lose it. No matter how big, no matter how powerful. Do you want to be part of the generation that fell asleep and allowed America to fall? Do you want to be the ones who future generations of frustrated kids being told what car they can and cannot drive, how much soda they can drink, what temperature to set their thermostat at – point to and say ‘they did this!’ ?? I don’t. And I know you don’t either. So let’s commit ourselves to being ever vigilant.
Being ever vigilant requires more than soaring rhetoric. The single most effective enabler to an exponentially growing big government is an uninvolved people. The less we do to help our fellow man, the more we legitimize governments efforts to fill a particular ‘need’ in America. If you want to reduce the size of government, you have to reduce the need they seek to fill. How do we do that?
At Restoring Love on July 28th in Dallas, TX, we will show this country and the world that America is still a nation that prefers freedom and liberty over progressive nanny state rule. We will demonstrate that a lemonade stand run by pre-teens is a valuable life lesson, NOT a threat to national security. We will prove that government food stamps aren’t the only way to feed the homeless and less fortunate. We will start the process that puts an end to the days when people turn to the federal government first in times of need.
We will once again declare America’s independence and stand together, united by the common yet powerful ideals that everyone – everyone – knows in their hearts are good and true: 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.
Many people dream of a day when these words are long forgotten. I refuse to allow that to happen without a fight – and I look forward to fighting alongside each and every one of you.
Happy 4th of July!
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