The United States of America is 250-years-old today.
This is an amazing milestone for our nation. But in many ways, it emphasizes how short a time our country has been around.
Recently Mel Brooks celebrated his 100th birthday. I saw something on the internet that said that he has been around for 40% of our nation's existence. I also saw something that said his birth was closer to the death of Thomas Jefferson than to today.
That is incredible to me how few generations we are from the 1776.
Wiser and more poetic people than me have waxed eloquently about the virtues of America. But please allow me a few humble words to express my love for my country.
My father is an immigrant. He came here because America is the land of opportunity. I asked him once why he didn't stay in his native nation. He told me that if he stayed there was a very low ceiling to how far he could go. But in America, there was no limit.
He also told me that the thing that surprised him the most was how big our country is. Before coming here, he imagined you could drive from New York to Chicago in a few hours. But the vastness of our land blew his mind.
When he got here, he started off staying with his brother who had also immigrated. He then met and married my mom. And together they had very little. They saved and scraped just to get by, all the while my father worked himself constantly to provide. Many years later when my parents got divorced my father told me that he would always take care of my mom because "she stayed with me when we had nothing."
But they did not always have nothing. He worked to provide a better life for his family. He took in his mom and dad, who also became US citizens. He loves this country and has always been grateful for all that it provided.
My love for America is rooted mostly in my father's story. And it isn't about any simply about material success. It's about what America meant to my father:
It is the land of opportunity, because it is the land of freedom.
A few years ago I was out after dark on a summer's night getting a late dinner for my wife and I. And as I was walking through the parking lot, I took a moment to think about how through so much of human history and even in parts of the world today, people did not experience these kind of simple freedoms. Not only was I able to earn a living to pay for that meal, but I have the freedom to choose where to go, where to live, where to work. While there are always dangers around, I live in relative peace and security. That is a blessing that I often take for granted because I have lived under it for so long.
In America, I have the freedom to become who I choose to be. I think of my favorite patriotic song, "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood. His opening line says, "If tomorrow all the things were gone, I'd worked for all my life and I had to start again with just my children and my wife, I'd thank my lucky stars that I'm living here today, 'cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can't take that away." My life has had ups and downs, same as everyone else. But even at the lowest of times, I was grateful to be in America. Because here, we have the freedom.
Today, I focus my gratitude to God for our country. No nation is perfect. There are still many areas where the fight for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness still rages on. But it rages on because we are committed to the ideas given to us in our founding document: the Declaration of Independence.
When I taught World History, one of my mentors pointed out to me how unique the American Revolution was. Most revolutions in history turn into horrific bloody reprisals of vengeance. But America was built on ideas, philosophy. Great thinkers like Locke and Montesquieu helped lay the rational foundation for our country. Our revolution was not just one of arms but one of thought.
In America, we see the world in a different way. We take very seriously the Christian principle that every single human life has value. Because of this, it is the individual and not the state that is the bedrock of our nation. It is one of the reasons we are not a pure democracy: our rights do not come from the majority. Our rights do not come from a king. We do not get our rights from the Constitution. Our rights do not come from the government at all.
They come from God.
I read somewhere that the Bill of Rights should not be read as a list of rights that the government gives the people. Instead it should be read as a list of rights that all citizens have from nature that no government has the right to take away. When I see how things like freedom of speech and freedom of religion are absent in so many countries of the world, it fills me with gratitude that I live in a country that enshrines those rights in our very nature.
Our founding fathers pledged everything, risked everything so that we could live in the freedom we have today. They fought and sacrificed so we could have this beautifully simple thing called "normal life." The family dinners, Sunday drives, drinks with friends, quiet walks, football tailgates, school plays, backyard gardening, reading books on the porch... all of these things are possible because we live in the greatest country in the world.
Today I will continue to pray for my country, that she may overcome all of the injustice that still plagues her and for her protection from all of our enemies. I will also pray in thanksgiving for my country, for all that she provides for us. I will pray for all those who have fought for us, those that have died for us, and those who have given to us so that we could live this life.
Below is the entire text of the Declaration of Independence.
As I have written in years past, I encourage you to read the entire text below on this birthday of our nation. Particularly, I am struck by the last line:
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Those who wrote their names on that document held up as collateral for the investment in our freedom:
1. Their Lives. I am humbled when I remember that so many gave much more than I will
ever give so that people like me could live free. The only way we can hold onto our freedom is if men and women are willing to pay the ultimate price. Too often tyrants, both fearsome and soft-spoken, try to snatch away our freedom. They depend on us to lay down our resistance and give in. We must never do so. The Founding Fathers gave us that pledge.
ever give so that people like me could live free. The only way we can hold onto our freedom is if men and women are willing to pay the ultimate price. Too often tyrants, both fearsome and soft-spoken, try to snatch away our freedom. They depend on us to lay down our resistance and give in. We must never do so. The Founding Fathers gave us that pledge.
2. Their Fortunes. I will likely never see combat. But how do I spend my money to
ensure freedom? Do I take care of our wounded warriors? Do I support laws and
representatives I believe in with my capital? And do I take payments from those who
would make me dependent? This pervasive bribery must lead inexorably to subtle slavery.
ensure freedom? Do I take care of our wounded warriors? Do I support laws and
representatives I believe in with my capital? And do I take payments from those who
would make me dependent? This pervasive bribery must lead inexorably to subtle slavery.
3. Their Sacred Honor. Do we even believe in honor anymore today? Does our name mean anything? In A Man for All Seasons, when asked why he would not take an oath of
loyalty to Henry VIII, Thomas More said, "When a man takes an oath,
he’s holding his own self in his hands. Like water. And if he
opens his fingers then — he needn’t hope to find himself again."
We are free and we must stand by our commitments.
Otherwise who we are, our name, means nothing.
he’s holding his own self in his hands. Like water. And if he
opens his fingers then — he needn’t hope to find himself again."
We are free and we must stand by our commitments.
Otherwise who we are, our name, means nothing.
These great men signed their names to this document.
For each of them it may have been a death sentence.
But they signed it nevertheless. They their day they took a stand against tyranny and stood for freedom.
In their day they stood as men.
Today they stand as giants.
And the challenge of today is this: could we stand with them?
Do we have what it takes to be the patriots at Valley Forge or the resistance at Boston Harbor? Does that same noble spirit of freedom stir in us?
Or do we stand with those who try to tear down their memory to only have us remember their faults and failings and not the fact that they gave us the greatest nation that the world has ever known?
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton
