Happy Dependence Day

No, that is not a typo, I'm just going to start one of my rants.  It's been a while since I've had an online outburst.  Probably because I've been too darned hot to even think straight.  And really, I guess this really doesn't count as an outburst, more like a depressing reality check.

Independence Day was the day that the Second Continental Congress adopted the legal separation between Great Britain and the original thirteen colonies.  It was actually finalized by Congress on July 2nd 1776, but made public on July 4th and the 4th is what everyone stuck with.

Why is it "Happy Forth of July" instead of "Happy Independence Day"?  Very few people or places say it or write it as the latter.  And how many political hacks and news venues say "Independence Day" any more?  Is it because we're lazy (or too ignorant to know how to spell that big "I" word), or is it because we've forgotten what the word Independence means?  I suppose it's a little bit of both.  No one remembers or even celebrates Constitution Day (September 17th, btw), and it probably does have something to do with the fact that we don't say "Happy September 17th!" and blow shit up and eat barbecued chicken and drink beer.

So what did original thirteen colonies find so horrible about Great Britain that they felt they would rather go it alone, without the backing of good ol' King George the Third?  There are twenty-eight indictments against the king in the Declaration of Independence and I challenge anyone to find that those same atrocities are not being committed by our own government today.  Instead of being outraged by the "liberties" our own government has been taking with our freedoms, we continue asking the government for more intrusion into our private lives.  Instead of cherishing our freedom, we just want free stuff.  Free food, free education, free housing, free cell phones, free health care.  Instead of wanting the government to stay out of our private lives, we have a country filled with mealy minded, irresponsible crybabies that demand more laws be written so somebody doesn't get offended or feel inferior or get a fingernail broken.

We depend on the government to take care of us from cradle to grave - and they would like nothing better.  We depend on the government to keep us healthy - and they poison us with "approved" foods laden with pesticides and outlaw raw milk.  We depend on the government to take care of our children from the moment of conception - and they gladly scoop them up, whisper sweet lies to them and turn them against us.  We depend on the government to keep us safe from terrorists; and they gladly label us as the terrorists.

We are no longer The Land of The Free.  We are The Land of Freebies.

We are no longer The Home of The Brave.  We are The Home of the Beaten.

But maybe it's just me.  Maybe this is what "The People" want.  Maybe it's time to move on, to move towards a more "progressive" way of thinking (excuse me a second while I vomit).  What's the point of The Constitutuion & The Bill of Rights when they have been stripped and watered down to be more "politically correct" or out and out ignored by those sworn to uphold them?  Maybe we will just scrap all those documents our country was founded upon, and come up with new ones.  It inevitably happens to all great empires. If a new constitution is implemented, do you think you will have more or less freedoms?  Who do you think it will be protecting?  Are we still going to pretend that we, the people, are living in The Land of The Free?  If we're going to be a society of irresponsible, irrational and immoral people, can we at least be truthful about it?

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
Samuel Adams

How far we have fallen.

Happy 4th of July.