Today’s festivities commemorating Independence Day at our nation’s capital will be unlike any before in magnitude. It is this some political pundits, politicians, and other naysayers condemn.
This year we will have flyovers from the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, ceremonies to honor each of our five service branches, patriotic music performances, and a culmination fireworks display to outdo all others. (The latter being immensely larger thanks to a generous donation from Phantom Fireworks and Fireworks by Grucci, a donation to the National Park Service that according to a Dept. of Interior press release is valued at $750,000 which permitted the fireworks display to be expanded.)
With many using various words and phrases inferring this is a mere ego-boost or partisan stunt for the president, others view it as a true “Salute to America” as it’s billed. What’s the truth?
For decades, patriotism, the love of one’s country, has diminished as an accepted sentiment among the people, especially the youth. Inundated with liberal, anti-God/anti-Christian rhetoric from the entertainment world to educational institutions which indoctrinate Marxist ideology, love of country and identification with the righteous ideals our country was founded upon has significantly diminished. Sadly, its symbols and music are now objects of disdain and its founding principles barely articulated by a great many. Knowledge of basic history is lacking in many citizens.
Americans have commemorated annually the approval by the Continental Congress of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Momentous, as it marked the beginning of the nation which made its priority the liberty of the individual, it’s origins of being celebrated go back to the founders.
As John Adams wrote in a letter to his wife, on July 3, 1776, “It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom, I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory…”
For seven years the Revolutionaries fought for liberty. Dying for their just cause, the Continental Army was aided by nations from all over the world, with tens of thousands dying from the combination of disease, captivity while prisoners of war, and in battle itself. It is important to remember that the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence and the thousands of countrymen who fought were willing to sacrifice themselves, if need be, for their noble endeavor. It is these men, Patriots for a country yet formed, whom we should remember and honor on this day.
Concurrently with such appreciative remembrance, every American who feels this gratitude to those who fought in this nation’s creation ought also to recognize and wonder at the “divine Providence” at work as mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. The founders of this nation were certainly aware as many of their writings wholeheartedly express God’s hand at work in this nation’s creation. Their desire for justice, for freedom, came from their faith and is evinced by their focus on religious freedom so that none could be restricted and that likewise the intrinsic value of the individual and his inalienable rights came not from a king but from their Creator (as cited in the Declaration of Independence) and that it must never be taken away by anyone.
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Source: Christian Headlines
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