4th of July Weekend

This is another Summer holiday where families and friends will be getting together, having cookouts, and attending fireworks shows (or lighting up their own fireworks).  It’s always a good time, but somebody invariably gets hurt in a roman candle fight or bottle rocket war.  Although fireworks safety is a legitimate topic, that will not be the meat of this post.

What does the 4th of July mean to you?  Is it what I’ve just described?  Good for you – you enjoy time with your family and friends and good clean fun.  I will be participating in activities like that as well, and I look forward to them.  However, that is not what this holiday means to me.

Rather than referring to it as ‘the 4th of July’ or simply, ‘the 4th’, I’d rather refer to it as Independence Day.  You may ask, "Why did you title this post as the 4th of July then?"  My response would be something to the effect of enabling you to find it.

Independence Day (July 4, 1776) is when the Declaration of Independence was approved by Congress and adopted to set our country Independent from the rule of any other.  King George wanted nothing to do with that – he wanted America to fall under his rule and continue to be British colonies with people that served him.

British Parliament began taxing the people in the colonies to pay their debt for the Seven Years’ War.  That is where the "No taxation without representation" slogan came from, and it expressed the views of many colonists.  Great writers such as Thomas Jefferson began arguing that Parliament was the legislature of Great Britain only, and that the colonies had their own legislatures.  The only connection to British Parliament was their loyalty to the crown.

And so it began that the Declaration of Independence was written.  It was something the people wanted.  The king had issued a proclamation of rebellion in response to Congress’ second petition to the king for his help in addressing colonial grievances.  This petition was sent in hopes to avoid bloodshed, but the king basically set rules and laws in motion to punish anyone exhibiting ‘rebellious’ or ‘traitorous’ actions.

Now I’m starting to get too deep for my own good, but this is some very interesting research, if you’re willing to search it out for yourself.  You can, however, get a really good idea of what was going on, and why American wanted independence from Great Britain by simply reading the Declaration.  The signers knew they were basically signing their death warrants, but they believed the cause of freedom for this great country was worth much more than their own lives.