On July 4th, 1776, 56 delegates from the 13 American colonies formally ratified the text that declared their independence from Great Britain as sovereign states, casting off the tyranny of King George after a long an arduous process of petitioning him for their grievances and suffering under oppression and military invasion.
The American colonists were a hardy, independent lot, men who were strong and self-reliant, interdependent in their local communities, and dependent on God for His blessing and favor.
But do we even begin to understand what they were fighting for? Do we understand how far we’ve fallen?
We’re so far removed from the days of the founding and the Declaration, that it’s hard to even conceptualize what the Founders were fighting for.
And it’s truly shocking when you realize how far we’ve descended into tyranny that they could hardly have imagined.
Dr. Gary North addresses this sharp juxtaposition in his piece, published at American Vision, called “Happy Fireworks Day“.
Here’s just a short excerpt of this shockingly good piece:
“We live under a self-imposed tyranny so vast, so all-encompassing by the standards of 18th-century British politics, that we cannot imagine risking everything we own in order to throw off the level of government interference suffered by the average American businessman in 1776, let alone the average farmer.
If we could start politically where the Continental Congress started in 1775, we would call home the members of that Congress. We would regard as crazy anyone who was willing to risk a war of secession for the sake of throwing off an import tax system that imposed a 1% burden on our income.
The Declaration of Independence points a finger at us, and shouts from the grave on behalf of the 56 signers: “What have you done? What have you surrendered in our name? What, in the name of Nature and Nature’s God, do you people think liberty is all about?”
We have no clue. American voters surrender more liberty in one session of Congress than the colonists surrendered to the British crown and Parliament from 1700 to 1776.”
It’s vital to understand how unprincipled we’ve become relative to our forebearers, so that we will become uncomfortable with our shackles and work diligently to remove them in whatever way we can.
And since the leviathan of American government is not likely to be reversed from its terminal course to self-destruction, it’s imperative that we take action locally – in our families, churches, local communities, and through political action at the county level – to fight for liberty and to unshackle the chains that bind us.
And since our modern conditioning leads us to not even recognize our shackles, you must first fight to Free Your Mind.
Dr. North’s article is a good starting point to get perspective on the tyranny we’ve become comfortable with, and how we can start to think properly to once again move towards liberty.
