Independence

Several days ago I sat in my morning chair – the place where I have my first cup of coffee and meet the day – and recalled the fun trip that my husband and I made during the fall of last year. We journeyed by bus through New England and Canada to see the beautiful and much publicized fall foliage of the area. During the years that I worked as a teacher and public school administrator, I harbored a desire to take an autumn vacation and experience the season in New England. We took several fall vacations after retirement, but did not travel to New England until last year.

The trip was great and the area was as beautiful as reported. As I remembered the beautifully colored trees and the many other sights that we saw, I picked up a brochure from the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that featured the Liberty Bell. The Liberty Bell cracked long ago, but the relic remains an icon of American freedom and liberty. When my husband and I first saw the Liberty Bell in 1986, it was housed in an open park not far from Independence Hall. Now it is enclosed in a building with a security check point that visitors must pass through before entering the site. Security check points were in all of the national monuments that we visited; reminding us of the volatile and often hostile world in which we now live.

The brochure contained a picture of Independence Hall with the Liberty Bell in the background. On the opposite page was a copy of the famous portrait of the Second Continental Congress by John Trumbull. The Second Continental Congress drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence. Four members of the congress were pictured in individual portraits. One was Richard Henry Lee who made the formal motion that the colonies declare their independence. Thomas Jefferson who drafted the document and John Adams who worked tirelessly for its adoption were also pictured. The last portrait was of the great Benjamin Franklin who was so very instrumental in the formation of the United States of American and in gaining the alliance of France that helped the colonists win the Revolutionary War. George Washington was not a member of that congress, because he was fighting the British at the time. Franklin, Adams, and Congress revised the draft of the Declaration of Independence, but we owe its enduring words to Thomas Jefferson.

I silently thanked those great men and all the others who took part in the formation of the United States of America. They were courageous, and took a stand for the right. What a great and wonderful country began with those first faltering steps toward freedom, liberty, and self-government. It is the only country of its kind in the world.

I thanked those men and all of the men and women who followed in their first footsteps toward freedom. Included are those who drafted and adopted the Articles of Confederation, “a treaty of alliance between independent and sovereign states”, as James Madison called the document that first set up our representative form of government. Later, the framers of The Great Compromise, the Constitution of the United States, wrote and adopted that document. Also included are those who continue to fight for our freedom, liberty, and self-government.

The United States of America is now two hundred thirty-one years old. Many of our men and women have fought and died to preserve the liberty those first citizens of this country gave to us, and to keep us from the yoke of tyranny.

Now another threat to our country and way of life exists. This threat comes in the form of terrorists who would, and did attack this great land and did harm to its people. The terrorists are out to destroy us, and they will unless we also take a stand. We must fight, along with the brave men and women who are giving their all to secure our liberty. The very freedoms we enjoy are at stake – government by the people, of the people, and for the people. They would impose upon us a government of harsh and stringent laws, not formed by the people and their representatives, but by themselves and their warped minds.

We can fight, just like our Founding Fathers and others have fought. We can support our country, and the troops who are fighting our battles. We can take a stand for the right, and not give an inch in the battle. It does not matter what you think of the war effort in which we are now engaged, the fact is that our brave soldiers are on a battlefield fighting for the liberties we enjoy. Don’t let them down, give them your support, and in that way you are supporting this great country – the United States of America.