The Fourth of July is not the day the Constitution was signed or ratified.
It’s not even when the Bill of Rights (and with it the legitimacy of the Constitution) was ratified.
It has nothing–nothing–to do with self-congratulatory, chest-thumping military displays.
It has nothing to do with any sort of flag.
It has nothing to do with faithfulness or loyalty to your government.
In fact, if you read the document that the Fourth actually celebrates, you find some interesting things, including:
* This is about declaring that a people are ultimately independent from, and therefore above, their government.
* This is about declaring the right to revolt against a government that has stopped representing its people.
* This is about people willing to stand up and become military targets of their own government.These folks were revolutionaries. They were secessionists. They were seditionists. No doubt King George considered them “terrorists” and “traitors”, guilty of “treason” toward the duly constituted authoritah of the time.
And we celebrate the Fourth of July today, not only because they stood up and said, “we’ve had enough of your abuses and are no longer subject to your rule”, but then had the moxie to fight back when George called them on it.
Think about that. These people opened fire on their own government, when said government came to take away their stockpiles of unlicensed, unregistered, long-range, (better than) military-style arms. They organized and fought a guerrilla insurrection rather than continue to endure a government that did not serve, reflect or benefit them. And, perhaps to the surprise of everyone including themselves, they prevailed.
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They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
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Thanks Joel.
This day seems to get tougher with each passing year, and hell, I only just passed 40 last year.
The high point of today’s “festivities”, for me, was watching the middle-school team, in uniform, walk along in the parade with a notable addition to the usual candy-tossers: one boy and one girl were gleefully marking their progress down “main street” with snap-n-pops.
Right past the constabulary, the parade organizers, and the public. Nobody gave ’em a second glance.
I had to confirm with my wife that I’d seen it correctly, and she was just as surprised as I was.
Alaska is a funny place. It’s no kind of liberty haven, but then sometimes these episodes-from-twenty-years-ago happen for no reason whatever, and just can’t help but make me smile.
The powers that be, mainly Jefferson, codifed in writting what the common man had acomplished more than a year before on April 19, 1774.
Let us not forget that the offical declaration was a hind sight effort to catch up to common idividual who stood toe to toe with the greatest military force in the world at the time. These anonymous men and women had to use FORCE to secure their natural rights. And no one needed to tell them why or how.
Anon 7-5-11 2:26 AM said:
“…. what the common man had acomplished more than a year before on April 19, 1774.”
And what pray tell would that be?
The activities of April 19th, 1775 is what I THINK you were referring to or did something also important happen a year before the Battles of Lexington and Concord?
Just curious ….
Stay Safe,
gooch
{who loves history and the study thereof}
Yeah, Lexington and Concord.
Sorry I thought everyone knew the story by now.