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July 4, 1776: Independence Day. Our Continental Congress adopts the final draft of the Declaration of Independence. From July 8, 1776 until August 1776, that profound document was read publicly. People listened, and celebrated whenever they heard it. The next year, in Philadelphia, bells rang and ships fired guns. Firecrackers were lighted.

But we were at war. The War of Independence against King George III dragged on until 1783. After we won that war, Independence Day was made an official holiday. But it wasn’t until 1941 that Congress declared July 4th a Federal Holiday.

Hey, this country is 232 years old. We’ve come a long way since 1776, winning over slavery and allowing women to vote. Now, we’ve challenges abroad and at home; some would gladly dissolve our constitution and allow us to be absorbed into a “World Community” with a fraction of our current rights and privileges.

Let’s not let that happen. The U.S.A. is independent and we should stay independent.

Maverick, and all of that.

The O!ther person leads us towards socialism, and a weakened nation.

From the Dayton Daily News; dateline today…

Our view: Gas prices can’t bring down a country

“The cost of gasoline (and natural gas and heating oil, which we’ll be talking more about come November) is really a symptom of a host of other bigger issues: A failure to have a national energy policy that’s not so excessively dependent on foreign oil, and, at bottom, this society’s insatiable demand for bigger and more things.

“While we’ve been consuming and refusing to plan and invest, oil wells have been being drained and our competitors have been gaining on us, and, yes, besting us in research, development and innovation. As a result, wages have been brought down, jobs have evaporated.
…

“Time and again we’re given modern-day proof that there’s no definitive guarantee of liberty simply because a piece of parchment inside the National Archives says it shall be so. With the privilege of freedom comes the responsibility not to be so myopic and unimaginative that we mistake fixable problems for impossible catastrophes.

“The pain of high gas prices will end when we, as a country, commit ourselves to changing habits that are not immutable and exploiting the ingenuity that no one doubts exists, but has not been tapped, rewarded and brought to market.”

See there? Hope from the heartland.

Let’s keep that sort of hope alive. Hope that’s not saddled to socialism. Hope that’s not dragging down everyone to the lowest common denominator.

We can do better than that, and we must do better than that.