America Celebrates Its Independence Day - July 4, 1776-2014.

Today is America's Independence Day - the day most of us call the Fourth of July. It was on July 4, 1776, that the Second Continental Congress meeting in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, approved the text of the Declaration. These first Americans didn't have anything tangible to tie them together on July 4,1776. Even the flag wasn't yet created. It wasn't until 1777 that the Continental Congress adopted the following : "Resolved: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." The thirteen stars represented the original Thirteen Colonies, soon to be the United States -- Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. But, those brave patriots who signed the Declaration of Independence - all Englishmen, all fearful of war with a powerful England, all sure that if they lost the coming war they would be hanged as traitors - had intangible beliefs so strong that they were impelled to act. They believed that men are born free and equal and that no government may rule over them without their active consent. They believed that no people are free unless they are willing to defend their God-given right to freedom. They believed that with freedom comes the individual liberties that each person chooses for his life and that with these liberties comes the responsibility to be respectful of the rights and liberties of one's fellow men. And those brave Signers believed above all that these fundamental truths are so sacred that they are worth dying for, if need be. Never before in the history of man had such a group come together - educated, thoughtful, intellectual, self-sacrificing, honorable and articulate republicans who were so determined to be free to govern themselves as they and their fellow patriots agreed that they put their names to the most radically human document that has ever been written. And they shared one other key truth that guided them always -- they believed they were Americans. So, on July 4, 2014, after 238 years, we Americans still celebrate our unique heritage, our visionary Founders and our sacred freedoms and responsibilities as Americans. Happy Fourth of July.