Independence Day in an Age of Dependence

The Liberty Loft ^ | July 4, 2021 | Seth Hancock

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Washington, DC — “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

Those are the beginning words of the Declaration of Independence which was adopted by the Continental Congress and signed by our nation’s founders on the 4th day of July in 1776. That is the document we celebrate on Independence Day.

However, we now live in an age where our government has claimed authority to define our fellow Americans as either “essential” or “nonessential,” has claimed authority to tell us what we wear in public, operates a massive welfare and entitlement state, claims to be the policeman of the world and controls nearly every aspect of our lives from healthcare to how the next generation will be educated. How, in an age of dependence, do we celebrate Independence Day?

The best way is to learn our history and why our founders “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor,” the final words of that declaration. In doing so, hopefully we can rediscover that love of liberty, that place where freedom and personal responsibility intersect, that has been lost.