240 years ago, a group of merchants, philosophers, politicians, public speakers. lawyers, and military officers, created and signed a document that made them traitors and terrorists in the eyes of their rulers and brothers in a far away land. They did so out of a need felt by most colonists, a need to be able to manage their own destiny, with politicians appointed by the peoples of their homeland, and not a king or parliament an ocean away.
That document started a desperate land and naval war that raged for over 8 years, killing over a hundred thousand and destabilizing the entirety of The 13 Colonies, between the help of our French and Spanish allies, and waning support of the War on the home-front, the English finally ended the struggle with The Treaty of Paris, and the beginnings of the now United States of America was formed.
Never forget the day that a group of men looked at the most powerful nation and man on earth and said NO, in the biggest, boldest, and most daringly insane way possible. They signed with their name on the dotted line, a document their then former king would read, and demand their heads. They knew the risks, and they did it anyway, because they believed in something, something greater than themselves, something they knew that could be good, beautiful, and righteous.
And the men that followed them on their path knew the uncertainty too, it was all too possible for them to lose everything, but they went ahead anyway. Because they knew what they were doing was right, 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.
Never forget those 56 men, those that followed them into the glorious annals of history, or the document they created together to try and secure the rights of man over Tyranny, Oppression, and Malice.
God Bless them. and God Bless the United States of America.
