FOURTH!

Happy Fourth.

It’s the fourth of July and we will be celebrating our countries declaration of independence! Every year I look at this day and think three things. Break from work, fireworks, and somewhere in the background the birth of our country. But this year, thanks to my wife’s obsession with the revolution, I understand it like I never have before.

The United Stated of America has been a unique place to grow up. The concept of democracy, the freedom to vote, and have a voice, has been steady throughout it’s history. It’s an amazing concept that here across north America our political conflicts are resolved peacefully, through elections and debates within a framework set up by some men with some great ideas many years ago.

What I never understood was the sacrifice. The men that signed the declaration of independence could have been executed for treason by England had we not won our freedom. They did it anyway. It took seven years and many tiny miracles to win the revolution. It’s a war we shouldn’t have won. There were many many young men who never lived to see the country that they helped create. Yet their names are just as important as those that signed the document.

This year, the fireworks will carry a little more meaning for me. I live in a country that isn’t perfect. The point is that we can work towards perfect. And it won’t come from some ruthless dictator for life who has decided that you must believe this, or you must do that. It will come from us.

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 pursuit of Happiness.