William Lisle Bowles (1762 - 1850) 1791

Far too long, Americans have been led into a false sense of security believing in their peers, the press and even the president that the united States is, "the greatest nation on the face of the earth, enjoying freedoms far beyond that of any other country..."

When the tragic events of last September 11^th hit upon our homeland, not seen in more than a generation, many citizens began to wake up and question just how great the united States really was and how fragile we had taken our freedoms for granted were.

My generation has been blessed in that we have never known or seen war. We were not born when World War II happened and too young to be a part of Vietnam. War and Freedom were words heard from our older cousins and uncles as they related their experiences from the conflicts they participated in, and the only images of combat we had known were from all those John Wayne films Hollywood produced.

And depending on what part of the country you were born and raised in, stories and events of individual wars were a basic part of your life.

Growing up in New England as I was, you had the Revolutionary War in your face on a daily basis. I can remember walking to school or riding my bike past places that had plaques on them that read in part, "George Washington slept here..." or some other tidbit about the War for Independence and thinking to myself, "Boy, ol’ George sure got around."

In the classrooms, we were taught to not only have a healthy respect for what our forefathers had fought and died for and given us, but to have a fierce independence of our own.

In church, we were taught that the united States was the only country to be supported on the firm foundation of the Bible and that as a Christian nation, we adopted the Laws of God as our own.

At home, we were taught that we lived in a Republic (a nation governed by laws based upon the higher Law of God) not a Democracy (a nation governed by the whims of the mob), and that it was a blessing; a privilege to be born in a country where anyone could go out and make their dreams come true if they worked hard enough.

During the Bicentennial Year of 1976 when I finally acquired the right to travel by automobile, New England (and perhaps the rest of the country) was draped in the stars and bars of the red, white and blue. It was the most patriotic summer I could ever remember being a part of.

About the same time, New Hampshire was having a tussle with the Feds over their State Motto, Live Free or Die. Washington DC didn’t like the verse. They felt it was too intimidating, and thus if New Hampshire didn’t back down and change their motto to something more politically friendly, they just may lose millions of dollars in federal funding!...

The citizens of New Hampshire decided to fight for their freedom of choice and keep their motto. Then they turned the tables on DC by mentioning the fact that they just may withhold their funds if the Fed boys didn’t back off and stop trying to interfere with State’s rights!...

DC did an about face, pronto!

We Americans are a fierce, individual lot, God bless us all! We’ll fight on any issue we feel is important to our future, our country’s future, and for our future generations. Some peons dare to come here and bomb us? You must be crazy to want to take us on!

We’re a praying nation, but we’re a fighting nation as well. And when the cause of liberty and freedom are in the balance, we will lay down our lives if necessary.

This July 4^th will be the first one since the holocaust of 9-11. My hope and prayer is that we Americans will reverence the day moreso than in times past. I feel as John Quincy Adams once felt about the day we celebrate our Independence...that it is as holy a day as the one in which we acknowledge that of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Freedom is something we should never taken lightly or for granted. A lot of blood was shed in the last couple hundred years for the freedoms we now have and are nearly losing piece by piece, and someday, God forbid, we just may have to shed our own blood to regain many of those lost freedoms.

In closing, here are a handful of quotes from those that came before us on what Freedom meant to them, and what it should mean to us. Let’s remember to keep the torch burning bright!

We, too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (June 19, 1941)

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too. William Somerset Maugham (1941)

None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. John Milton (1649)

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it. Thomas Paine (1777)

But what is Freedom? Rightly understood, a universal license to be good. David Hartley Coleridge (1833)

The time is now near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves... The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die. George Washington (August 27, 1776)