By Bob Livingston

Note: I am republishing this from Mr. Livingston because I think it deserves as much distribution as possible.  Please, please share this with others.

On June 7, 1776, the Continental Congress met at Philadelphia and received Richard Henry Lee’s resolution urging a declaration of independence from English rule. Five days later, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston were appointed to a committee to draft a declaration.

Committee members urged Jefferson to draft a document for the committee’s review; and 16 days later, the committee’s draft was read before the Continental Congress.

On July 1, 1776, Congress began debating and revising the document that it would adopt on July 4, 1776.*

As the debate began, Adams said: “Before God, I believe the hour has come. My judgement approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it. And I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and Independence forever!”

Like the other Founders, Adams understood what he was doing would be considered treason by the British Empire. But he was willing to risk his life and all he owned for the cause of freedom.

The Fourth of July is more than just a day off work, fireworks, barbecue and watermelon — much more. It’s a day that marks the anniversary of one of the most momentous occasions in human history. It’s Independence Day!

On that glorious day in 1776, 56 brave men signed their names to the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming that the 13 original American colonies were no longer willing to live under tyrannical British rule. They were now “Independent” of Great Britain.

Those men, among them some of the most notable names in American history, risked their own fortunes, their safety and that of their families by signing the document while they were still in the earliest stages of a war against an enemy that vastly outgunned them and was better trained. By signing their names to the very spirit of patriotism, the men risked being hanged in the event of capture or defeat; and they risked consigning their families to lives of misery and poverty and persecution.

But they were not alone. Thousands of the signers’ fellow countrymen had already denounced loyalty to Great Britain and taken up arms against the British in the name of American independence. Seven bloody years after the signing of the Declaration and eight bloody years after the initial shots at Lexington and Concord, a new, free, republican nation was born.

Those 56 who risked their lives by signing their names to a document that declared in no uncertain terms that they meant to create a better place where freedom reigned supreme would undoubtedly have trouble recognizing their nation today. Given the state of political discourse and the tendency for bureaucracy to destroy freedom in order to centralize power and enrich the oligarchs, the federal government has effectively come to represent everything for which those men claimed disdain in the Declaration.

The America of today houses one-fourth of the world’s prison population. The number of Americans in prison per 100,000 population exceeds Cuba’s, Russia’s, North Korea’s, Iran’s and Venezuela’s. More than 3,000 Americans are serving life without parole sentences for non-violent crimes like shoplifting a $150 coat, shoplifting a couple of $45 Michael Jordan jerseys, possessing a crack pipe, possessing a bottle cap with a trace of heroin, and acting as a go-between for a $10 marijuana sale to an undercover police officer.

There are almost 5,000 listed Federal criminal offenses, leading Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent author Harvey Silverglate to claim that, “[I]t is only a slight exaggeration to say that the average busy professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, takes care of personal and family obligations and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she likely committed several Federal crimes that day.”

Although federal and state laws mandate all children receive an education, federal and state laws also mandate a dangerous vaccination regimen and there is a push at both the state and federal levels to remove any exemptions.

Parents have little to say in how their children are treated for illnesses. Sick children are being removed from parents who refused to follow medication and treatment instructions from the doctors, even if the children weren’t getting better from the treatments. Children are being removed from parents who let them play unsupervised in parks.

Schools are banning Christian symbology from schools and forcing boys to dress and shower with girls, and girls to dress and shower with boys. Teachers are being forced under penalty of job loss to supervise this.

There are no longer any property rights. Fail to pay your annual tribute to the king (property taxes) and see who owns it. Or try to fill in a pond (or dig one), knock down a hill (or build one), cut some timber (or plant some), or raise livestock or bees or some other animal other than the state-approved dog or cat and don’t be surprised if a federal, state or local regulator comes along and puts an injunction on your plans and takes you to court… or has you arrested. Many cities and towns are even citing people over the shrubbery and flowers they plant (or don’t) and flags they fly (or don’t).

Do you own some undeveloped or rundown property? Watch out. Thanks to the Supreme Court, municipalities can just take it away if they think they can give it to someone else to develop so more taxes can be collected on it.

Your 2nd Amendment rights are being stripped away from you piecemeal. The latest effort, endorsed by President Donald Trump, involves having law enforcement confiscate your weapons based on a complaint from a family member or neighbor. Trump claimed, take the weapons first, worry about due process later. This means there is no longer any due process.

The Department of Homeland Security openly encourages Americans to spy on one another and tattle to Big Brother like school kids (See something, say something). Through its Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a growing army of criminal perverts fondle, grope and take naked photographs of us at airports, bus stops and train stations. We live in an America in which these same government goons are now holding checkpoints to ensure we have our proper papers.

Collecting water falling out of the sky is now a crime. Guy Harrington says he had the necessary permits for his reservoirs, but the State revoked them arbitrarily. Permits? For a pond? When you have to ask the king for permission to put a pond on your own property, that property is not yours. You are merely squatting.

Totalitarian government bureaucrats (Federal and State) have made war on people who want to grow and eat natural foods, drink raw milk or take natural supplements. In fact, a Wisconsin judge has ruled people in that State have “no fundamental right” to consume any food, own or use dairy cows, or consume milk their cows produce unless they first get government permission. Even your pigs have to be a state-approved color.

All across America, children’s lemonade stands are being shut down and people trying to hand out food and drinks to the needy find themselves under the boot of the growing thugocracy quaintly known as benevolent government out to ensure your safety. Since it’s done for our own good, we’re supposed to silently comply.

We live in an America our Founding Fathers wouldn’t recognize. They certainly wouldn’t approve of it.

Have you ever actually read the Declaration? If so, how long ago was it? Only by reading the document can one understand just how the United States has come full circle back to tyranny.

Click here to read the document in its entirety. Read it slowly and pay extra attention to the stated list of grievances. How many of those can we reasonably claim today?

For a thorough historical background and to better understand the Declaration’s signers, read “They Signed for Us,” which was written by Merle Sinclair and Annabel Douglas McArthur and first published in 1957.

But most of all, take time from your celebratory fireworks, meal preparations or travel to remember that the Fourth of July is Independence Day, and brave men signed the document at risk of death. They, and many other men and women who understood what liberty means fought for and died for our freedom.

And every day we Americans turn our backs on them, their legacy and the liberties they sacrificed for.

*From ushistory.org

Nathan’s thoughts: We CAN restore our liberties and our freedom, and we must. As bad as we are, virtually all the rest of the world is worse off, and we all need the hope of restoring liberty.  In our lifetimes.