MOTUS A.D.: As it Turns Out, We Were the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

As it Turns Out, We Were the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For.

Happy Birthday America! And I wish to offer my deep, deep thanks to our founding fathers for giving us the gift of liberty.

And I see the Egyptians have decided to celebrate along with us this year.

Unfortunately, Egypt demonstrates what happens if your Declaration of Independence was not such a finely-crafted, well thought out articulation of political philosophy: you end up with a constitution that’s not as keen on liberty as ours. In that event, the next thing you know, you’re being governed by another tyrannical dictator.

I’m not saying that what’s happening in Egypt could never happen here: after all, we were warned by several of our founding fathers that liberty requires constant vigilance. All I’m saying is they did their best to guard against it.

With that, and Ronald Reagan’s reminder that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction, MOTUS would like to encourage the reemerging tradition of reading aloud the complete Declaration of Independence on Independence Day. As you gather with friends and family to celebrate the crafting of the world’s most perfect union, please take 10 minutes to read this splendid document founding a splendid republic (links to the audio, video or JFK reading of it).

The JFK reading was done in 1957 when John F. Kennedy was still a Senator from Massachusetts. Despite the fact that he was a duly elected Democrat, by today’s standards he would be considered more conservative than most elected Republicans. I can only conclude that it would be a good idea to require all sitting presidents to read the Declaration of Independence before they are sworn into office to uphold the Constitution.

I thought you might also enjoy Paul Harvey’s reminder to us that, unlike all other revolutions before and after - where the rebels had nothing to lose - our founding fathers put everything on the line. Watch and listen as the clarion voice of Paul Harvey tells us the price our forbears were willing to pay for the gift of liberty. Listen to the proverbial “rest of the story.” Hear him tell the fate of those 56 men who learned that liberty is so much more important than security that they pledged “…our lives, our fortune, our sacred honor” to ensure it.

America: please don’t give away so cavalierly that which these great men gave so much to establish.

And now, since it’s important to celebrate this great holiday, here’s a little something from The Lonely Libertarian that will kick your 4th of July s’mores up to notches unknown. I think these pictures provide all the recipe you’ll need:

Warning: do not eat more than a dozen