In 1776, a handful of brave Americans declared our colonial resolve to become free and independent, tossing aside England's oppressive yoke. One thing to declare it, quite another to achieve it. That seemingly impossible mission was left to the brilliant general and leader, George Washington, and his ill-clothed and equipped, ill-fed, rarely-paid, colonial militia, wracked with disease and desertion, men from the farms, towns, and states, whom General Washington somehow kept cobbled together as a fighting force, and who, with tide-turning help from the French, eventually succeeded in forcing the British to surrender, our young nation set free.
Since then, generations have taken our hard-fought independence for granted. And why not? With the buffering-blessing of two huge oceans to our east and west, even early in World War II after Pearl, the globe under siege, while the Japanese provoked panic in the pacific west, and German subs decimated Atlantic shipping, the chance of invasion, as suffered by Europe, was quite slim, thanks to our heaven-sent geography.
Then, one day, over 50-years later, our security and complacency were shattered, when, one, nightmare morning, murdering, dark-age zealots attacked us, savagely ending our innocence, leaving, instead, a vulnerability that haunts us still to this day. Unthinkably, our very sovereignty remains in play, whether from unsustainable foreign borrowing and debt; irresponsibly-porous borders; weak leadership and a weakened nation, worrisome to our allies, a green-light to our enemies; or the reality that, no matter how long it may take, the eternal goal of Islamic radicals is to destroy us and other free people. With the honor and privilege, we share, of celebrating, yet again, the birth of our magnificent nation, do remember that our sovereignty and freedom are no longer givens. Cherish America's independence, her blessed-legacy of liberty, and, cherish most of all, those who, from 1776 forward, have so valiantly fought and sacrificed, for us all, to keep it so.
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