For Independence Day 2022

(For current politics, please scroll down) 

The inimitable Paul Harvey (1918-2009) and worth your time:

Truly, we stand upon the shoulders of giants.  

Oh, the sacrifices those men made for liberty! 

May we be worthy to have received that liberty!

October 19th, 1781

Silverfiddle Rant!

The United States of America: Founded in Optimism

Should Independence Day be celebrated on a different day?  History buffs like to point out the Continental Congress voted for independence from Britain on July 2nd.  Some argue that July 2nd should be the day to celebrate, but I used to have a totally different date in mind.  

Somewhere in my young life, can't remember when, I was shocked when I realized the United States did not gain sovereignty on July 4th 1776: That was when the war started, not when it ended in our victory (I was a poor student).

America declared its independence in 1776, but it took another five years to win freedom from the British. That day came on October 19, 1781, when the British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered his troops in Yorktown, Virginia. (America's Library)

That we recognize the declaration rather than the eventual achievement says much about our national character: We are an optimistic people.  God grants all humans the gift of liberty.  It does not flow from a king or government.  We declared ourselves free on July 4th 1776, and that is what we celebrate.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Birthday, America — Land That I Love!

(with thanks to Warren for sending me the link to this video)

Take time to learn this history lesson for this Independence Day 2020:

Independence Day 2019

(For politics related to current events, please scroll down)

What is there about America to love? The two selections below offer many reasons:





Happy birthday, America!

For Independence Day 2018

"America the Beautiful," performed by the Hillsdale College Choir:

The lyrics of "America the Beautiful" By Katharine Lee Bates (1913):

Happy Birthday, Land That I Love!

I am posting a few days early for Independence Day 2017 so that readers of this blog will have enough time to enjoy the soaring music of Symphony No. 9 In E Minor (aka "From The New World") by Antonín Dvořák (1841 –1904) and the accompanying images:



For detailed information about the composer and the above piece, please see THIS POSTING at Musical Musings. Those of you familiar with the song "Goin' Home" you may be surprised to learn the following:

[Dvořák] composed the Symphony No. 9 in 1893, and while American music inspired him, he did not use any American melodies in the work. He wrote in the American style of pentatonic scale use and did it so well that for a long time many put the cart before the horse, especially in regards to the melody from the 2nd movement. A song named "Goin' Home" takes its melody from the symphony, not the other way around. The words were not set to the melody until many years after the symphony had been written.

A detailed discussion of the origins of "Goin' Home," is found HERE.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, USA!

AND HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY 2017 TO ALL WHO STOP BY ALWAYS ON WATCH!

Never forget why we celebrate this day:

The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a resolution earlier in the year which made a formal declaration inevitable. A committee was assembled to draft the formal declaration, to be ready when congress voted on independence. Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which congress would edit to produce the final version. The Declaration was ultimately a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The Independence Day of the United States of America is celebrated on July 4, the day Congress approved the wording of the Declaration.

Quotes from signers:

"Believe me, dear Sir: there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America."
Thomas Jefferson

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin

"I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."
John Adams

"There, I guess King George will be able to read that."
John Hancock

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right...and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers."
John Adam

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
Thomas Jefferson

"I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these states. Yet through all the gloom I see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth all the means. This is our day of deliverance."
John Adams

"Equal and exact justice to all men...freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected,these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us."
Thomas Jefferson

"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Benjamin Franklin

Independence Day 2016

(For politics, please scroll down)

For the long Fourth-of-July weekend:

Have a celebratory and safe Fourth of July!

Independence Day Weekend 2015

Hillsdale College's choir singing "America the Beautiful":

O Ship Of State by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882):

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
’Tis of the wave and not the rock;
’Tis but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest’s roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee.
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o’er our fears,
Are all with thee,—are all with thee!

Independence Day 2014

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA!

The incomparable Paul Harvey (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) and worth 10 minutes of your time and several hours of your own meditation thereon:



May the dedication and commitment mentioned by Paul Harvey be revived today!  

The American ideals of freedom and individual rights are worth any and all necessary sacrifices.

Some reading for today: Rights, government and a punctuation ambiguity in the Declaration of Independence.

____________________________________________________

On The Gathering Storm Radio Show today, our scheduled guest is Warren.  We will be discussing why America is the greatest country in history.

The show broadcasts live for 30 minutes beginning at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is 646-915-9870. Callers welcome!

Listen to the July 4, 2014 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

Musical Interlude For Independence Day (And The Weekend)

Our Founders and others living during the first days of our republic would have been familiar with these tunes:



Please crank up your volume to listen to the following version of our National Anthem (hat tip to Conservative Perspective):


HAPPY BIRTHDAY,
AMERICA!
The Declaration of Independence:

Musical Interlude For Independence Day

This song always makes me cry tears of happiness and patriotism:


The choral version:

Happy Independence Day, America!

Reading for today from Political Tea Leaves: "All Hail Rodney this Independence Day." Excerpt:

...Rodney’s vote for independence was considered high treason and caused him to be branded a traitor to the Crown. As history records, Caesar Rodney gave up the possibility of receiving medical treatment in London because he voted and pledged his life, fortune and sacred honor for American Independence....

Read the whole thing.

Independence Day 2011

Happy birthday, America!


Thanks to RP Free Speech for bringing the following video to my attention — an important reminder of how our freedom has been secured:


If you're of a mind to do some erudite reading for Independence Day, go HERE to read this essay by Frederick William Dane (pdf, hat tip to Right Truth). Pay special attention to pages 29 - 33. Excerpt below the fold: