By Angry Old American Copyright Angry Old American, June 28, 2022. All Rights Reserved. As many of you know; I have long been a critic of the annual Bar-B-Que and Fireworks Celebration of July 4th. When equating July 4th with “Independence Day,” we have not been an Independent nation for many decades. For the most part, Americans are not an “Independent People.” For several generations we have lost the knowledge, skills and grit that add-up to self-sufficiency and self-determination. Yet each year, like clockwork, we break out our American flags, witness parades, feast on charred choice chicken parts and grilled ground beast, and pop off a dazzling show of fireworks while singing along with legacy patriotic songs. All of this is done during an Administration that holds “Patriot Extremists” and Traditional Values” in complete disdain. Should we celebrate the 4thof July? A group of highly pissed-off rebels declared “Independence” from Britain on July 4th of 1776. They were angry about taxes that pale in comparison to those of today. Yet they did not WIN that Independence til after a long and bloody war, 7 years and two months later on September 3rd , 1783. Not that I berate the Declaration of Independence; indeed it is a magnificent document and should be applied today! However, words are cheap; and the blood, sweat and tears of action speak much louder than words. If anybody today were to dare utter a Declaration of Independence, or insist on a Constitution and Bill of Rights; the Biden Administration would brand them “Insurrectionists” and slam a cell door on them for life, or worse. We are no longer a nation of proud and self-directed adults. The average modern American is more dependent on the largesse of government fiat monetary handouts than ever before. Our Nation is more dependent on imports of food, fuel, medications and critical supplies since the founding of our Nation! To my understanding, that juvenile desperate demeaning dependence on others equates to a group of common whores “Give me money and I love you long-time!” Is it any wonder that our sold-out, over-paid and predatory local politicians and government bureaucrats are the biggest 4th of July “Patriots?” Sorry to burst the annual delusional bubble. We are experiencing self-inflicted runaway inflation, fuel and food shortages, a proxy shooting war with Russia and an economic war with China; and at the same time our “government” is intent on destroying our personal constitutional rights, purging society of their political opposition, and making us more dependent on People’s Republic of China imports than ever before. You can keep your parades, Bar-B-Ques, patriotic songs, flag-waving, fireworks and other empty mindless gestures. Russia, China, North Korea and Iran have the same sort of celebrations, and attendance in those countries is MANDATORY. I see NOTHING tangible worth celebrating! Read the Declaration of Independence: The DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE Action of Second Continental Congress, July 4, 1776 The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation. 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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World. *He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good. *He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. *He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only. *He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures. *He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People. *He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within. *He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. *He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. *He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries. *He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance. *He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures. *He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. *He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: *For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us: *For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World: *For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: *For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury: *For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing herein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies: *For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: *For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever. *He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. *He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People. 8He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: *For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World: *For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: *For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury: *For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences: *For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies: *For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: *For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever. *He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. *He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People. *He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. —And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. Signed by ORDER and in BEHALF of the CONGRESS, John Hancock, President Attest. Charles Thomson, Secretary Signers of the Declaration of Independence Georgia: Button Gwinnett Lyman Hall George Walton North Carolina: William Hooper Joseph Hewes John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge Thomas Heyward, Jr. Thomas Lynch, Jr. Arthur Middleton Massachusetts: Samuel Adams John Adams Robert Treat Paine Elbridge Gerry John Hancock Maryland: Samuel Chase William Paca Thomas Stone Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe Richard Henry Lee Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Harrison Thomas Nelson, Jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee Carter Braxton Pennsylvania: Robert Morris Benjamin Rush Benjamin Franklin John Morton George Clymer James Smith George Taylor James Wilson George Ross Delaware: Caesar Rodney George Read Thomas McKean New York: William Floyd Philip Livingston Francis Lewis Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton John Witherspoon Francis Hopkinson John Hart Abraham Clark New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett Matthew Thornton William Whipple Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman Samuel Huntington William Williams Oliver Wolcott