Reflections on Independence Day - one week later

So, how was your Fourth of July?

The American Independence day is a holiday generally associated with family, fireworks and barbecue. Those are all things I enjoy - and they were all part of my Fourth again this year. However, I believe this holiday means something more. Just as it can be easy to forgot the real purpose of Christmas, it can be easy to forget what Independence day means. It means freedom from tyranny. It means having a nation to call one's own. It means stars and stripes and 13 original colonies that have now exploded and become 50 United States.

Here's an excerpt from The Declaration of Independence:

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...

Thank you, Founding Fathers.