Saturday, July 05, 2014

Happy Fourth of July!

Hendersonville, TN goes crazy with fireworks every fourth of July. Here are my neighbors in the back yard, just two houses down from me:


Wow!

Hard for us, I think, to appreciate the bravery of those men who signed our Declaration of Independence 238 years ago today, putting their lives, the lives of their families and for many, their considerable fortunes, at risk.

The powerful words of Thomas Jefferson still resonate today:

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.