Not celebrating Independence Day 2025
I'll be back at it when we have freedom again
This year, I’m not feeling much like celebrating the country’s independence. Forgive me if that sounds sacrilegious to you. I love this country. Or said more accurately, I love the idea of America, which is an idea based in liberty. But can we seriously argue today that this is “a free country?” I don’t think so.
We live in a “show me your papers” police state, where the expectation is that one must readily have their identification handy for presentation to law enforcement in order to move about.
The currency is being debased as a matter of policy such that many Americans can no longer afford homes, vacations, or children — even in households with two incomes from full time jobs — making people virtual economic prisoners of their country.
We pay for a government-run education system has allowed that roughly half of the country’s schoolchildren will graduate high school with less than a proficient understanding of basic reading, writing, math, or history.
The government feeds a healthcare system that is designed to keep Americans perpetually sick and permanently dependent on pills, programs, and politicians.
We have measurably more government — more taxing districts, more agencies, and more laws — than ever in the history of the country.
The complexity of laws and regulations has grown so severely that no one can possibly follow and comply with every government edict, making us all vulnerable to government sanctions including fines and jail.
Rights that are supposed to be protected by the U.S. Constitution are equivocated away through legislative and judicial action.
The severity of my feelings about these grievances rose as I watched a video of U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune several days ago. He was giving a speech in the Senate Chambers, contorting his body from left to right, right to left, as though he was addressing a room full of colleagues. Of course was not. The room was mostly empty.
He was performing for the camera. The camera shot is kept tight purposefully as to not spoil the illusion of a Mr. Smith Goes to Washington oratory in which senators are fixated on the words of the speaker. And maybe they would be, if only anyone was there to listen.
Moreover, as Thune addressed an imaginary audience, his comments were regarding a bill has never been fully vetted or deliberated, and so massive that few people, including those in Congress, have read it in its entirety and that even fewer people fully understand.
This is the government we have now, almost 250 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Our experiment in self-governance has run aground.
Are we better off today not being ruled by a despotic monarch across an ocean 3,600 miles away from the shores of the United States? In many ways, yes, but in other ways, not so much. We’ve traded the Crown for a gaggle of actors, buffoons, and self-righteous politicos whose whole objective is to remain in elective office and continue the theater of freedom, even as the real thing slips further from our grasp and collective consciousness.
Freedom is everything. Today, we don’t really have it.
I think a lot of the following words from Patrick Henry’s liberty or death speech regarding the Revolution are probably apt today:
“MR. PRESIDENT: No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do, opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely, and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfil the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the majesty of heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves, and the House? Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with these war-like preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort.
I ask, gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing.
We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne.
In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!
They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable²and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”