Happy Fourth of July

By Mary MacElveen
July 4th, 2009

Today I want to wish each and all of you a Happy Fourth of July. To me, it has never been a day set aside just for picnics and store-sales, but a day to remember who we are. We must ask ourselves: How many men and now women have spilled their blood on past battle fields to preserve our freedoms and continue to do so? They are the ones we must pray for today and continue to pray for each and everyday.

At this time, I want you to listen to the words crafted by our founding fathers as they penned the Declaration of Independence. While mortal men, they breathed a certain immortality to these words that have defined us all these years. While we are a free people as declared by these men, often we do not assert such freedom and accept what laws are passed and taxes imposed. It is our right and duty to become ‘We the People’ stating to any elected official once they have breached their sacred promise to any of us, to speak up and not just at the voting booth. We must remember that they serve us and not the other way around. Thus has been my journey, my mission during these past nine years.

Have I affected any real change? I do not know. But, I know this: The founders would have expected me to speak out as they expect us all. They were geniuses in crafting a democracy beloved by many, and feared by others.

If I were to pick my favorite part of the Declaration of Independence, it would be the stanza below:

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.

At this time, I want all of you to enjoy the words to the Star Spangled Banner which was written by Francis Scott Key. The founders of this country were and forever will be men made of the right stuff. They did the heavy lifting for all of us and it is our duty to heed their words.

Happy Fourth of July,
Mary MacElveen!