The FReeper Foxhole Celebrates Independence Day

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Declaration of Independence
A Brief History
by Stanley L. Klos

"The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was 'to form a more perfect Union.' " Abraham Lincoln First Inaugural On June 7th, 1776 Richard Henry Lee brought the following resolution before the Continental Congress of the United Colonies:

``Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.'' .

On Saturday, June 8th, Lee's resolution was referred to a committee of the whole (the entire Continental Congress), and they spent most of that day as well as Monday, June 10th debating independence. The chief opposition for independence came mostly from Pennsylvania, New York and South Carolina. As Thomas Jefferson said, they "were not yet matured for falling from the parent stem." Since Congress could not agree more time was needed "to give an opportunity to the delegates from those colonies which had not yet given authority to adopt this decisive measure, to consult their constituents .. and in the meanwhile, that no time be lost, that a committee be appointed to prepare a declaration".

Accordingly on June 11th Committee of Five was chosen with Thomas Jefferson of Virginia picked unanimously as its first member. Congress also chose John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. The committee assigned Thomas Jefferson the task of producing a draft Declaration for its consideration.

Jefferson's writing of the original draft took place in seventeen days between his appointment on the committee until the report of draft to Congress on June 28th. Thomas Jefferson drew heavily on George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights (passed on June 12, 1776), state and local calls for independence, and his own work on the Virginia Constitution.

Jefferson's original rough draft was first submitted to Benjamin Franklin and John Adams for their thoughts and changes

"because they were the two members of whose judgments and amendments I wished most to have the benefit before presenting it to the Committee". -- Thomas Jefferson

The entire committee reviewed after Franklin and Adams's changes. After much discussion 26 changes were made from Jefferson's original draft. The Committee presented it to Congress on Friday June 28th which ordered it to lie on the table.

According to historian John C. Fitzpatrick the Declaration's

"...genesis roughly speaking, is the first three sections of George Mason's immortal composition (Virginia Declaration of Rights), Thomas Jefferson's Preamble to the Virginia Constitution, and Richard Henry Lee's resolution..."

Congress was called to order on July 1st at 9am and serious debate consumed most of that hot and humid Monday. Late in the day it was apparent that the delegates from Pennsylvania and South Carolina were not ready to pass the Lee resolution for Independence. Additionally the two delegates from Delaware were split so debate was postponed until the following day. On July 2, 1776 both Robert Morris and John Dickinson deliberately abstained by not attending the session and the remaining Pennsylvania delegation voted for independence. South Carolina leader's son, Arthur Middleton, chose to ignore his absent and ailing father's Tory wishes changing the colony's position to aye. Finally the great patriot Caesar Rodney with his face riddled with cancer rode all night through the rain and a lightening storm arriving in time to break the Delaware 1 to 1 deadlock by casting the third vote for independence. Thus all 12 colonies voted on July 2nd and adopted the resolution, introduced by Richard Henry Lee and John Adams, declaring independence from Great Britain:

``Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.'' . On July 2, 1776 the United Colonies of America officially became the United States of America.

It was July 2, 1776 that John Adams thought would be celebrated by future generations of Americans writing to his wife Abigail Adams on July 3, 1776:

"The Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. . . . It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."

After the resolution was passed the Continental Congress turned to the debate over the Committee of Five's Declaration of Independence. Time was short and Congress adjourned until Wednesday the 3rd. The debates of July 3rd and 4th altered the manuscript and with these changes the Declaration of Independence was approved. Thomas Jefferson was disappointed by the "depredations" made by Congress writing:

The pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms with, still haunted the minds of many. For this reason those passages which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck out, lest they should give them offense. The clause too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in compliance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who on the contrary still wished to continue it. Our Northern brethren also I believe felt a little tender under these censures; for tho' their people have very few slaves themselves yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others."

Despite this and other key edits and changes Jefferson is rightfully considered the author of the Declaration of Independence.

Declaration of Independence - July 4, 1776

It was July 1776. Fighting between the American colonists and the British forces had been going on for over a year. The Continental Congress had been meeting since June, wrestling with the question of independence. Finally, late in the afternoon on July 4th, 1776 twelve of the thirteen colonies reached agreement to formally declare the new states as a free and independent nation. New York was the lone holdout. In the evening Congress ordered:

That the declaration be authenticated and printed

That the committee appointed to prepare the declaration superintend and correct the press

That the copies of the declaration be sent to the several assemblies, conventions and committees, or councils of safety, and to the several commanding officers of the continental troops, and that it be proclaimed in each of the United States, and at the head of the army.

In accordance with the above order Philadelphia printer John Dunlap was given the task to print broadside copies of the agreed-upon declaration that was signed by John Hancock as President and Charles Thomson as Secretary of the Continental Congress.

Broadside Produced during the night of July 4, 1776, by printer John Dunlap

Click Image to Enlarge

John Dunlap is thought to have printed between 200 to 500 Broadsides that July 4th evening which were distributed to the members of Congress on July 5th. It is a known fact that John Hancock sent a copy on July 5th, 1776 to the Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania, a copy to the Convention of New Jersey, and a copy to Colonel Haslet with instructions to have it read at the head of his battalion. In addition John Admas sent one copy, and Elbridge Gerry two copies , to friends.

The Declaration as affirmatively voted on on July 4th was not signed on that day. The New York Delegates were required to abstain from voting. John Hancock sent a Dunlap broadside off to the NY Provincial Congress on Saturday July 6th. On July 9th the New York Provincial congress sitting in the Court House in White Plains adopted this resolution under the leadership of John Jay:

"That reasons assigned by the Continental Congress for declaring The United Colonies Free and Independent States, are cogent and conclusive, and that now we approve the same, and will at the risque of our lives and fortunes, join with the other colonies in supporting it."

The New York Resolution was laid before the Continental Congress on July 15th so then and not before was it proper to entitle the document "The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen States of America." Contrary to popular belief, this printed broadside with only Hancock and Thomson's names was the actual document delivered to King George III in England later that year. The names of the other delegates who voted for Independence were not published until 1777.

Today there are only 25 of these broadsides that are known to exist. The original Declaration of Independence that was signed by John Hancock and Charles Thomson after the delegates voted on July 4, 1776 is lost. One of these unsigned "Dunlap Broadsides", as it is known, sold for $8.14 million in a August 2000 New York City Auction. This copy was discovered in 1989 by a man browsing in a flea market who purchased a painting for four dollars because he was interested in the frame. Concealed in the backing of the frame was an Original Dunlap Broadside of the Declaration of Independence.

As the Delegates returned home with the Dunlap Broadsides each State decided on how to disseminate the Declaration of Independence to its citizens. Some states, like Virginia, chose newspapers while others ordered official State Broadsides to be printed.

The official printing ordered by Massachusetts was to be distributed to ministers of all denominations, to be read to their congregations. News of the declaration was proclaimed in every parish of Massachusetts via broadside. In the absence of other media, broadsides were subsequently distributed out among the colonies and tacked to the walls of churches and other meeting places to spread news of Americas independence.

The Engrossed Declaration

Click Image to Enlarge

On July 19, 1776 Congress ordered that the Declaration be

"fairly engrossed on parchment, with the title and stile [sic] of 'The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America,' and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member of Congress."

Timothy Matlack, a Pennsylvanian who had assisted the Secretary of the Congress, Charles Thomson prepared the official document in a large, clear hand. Matlack was also the "scribe" who wrote out George Washington's commission as commanding general of the Continental Army which was also signed by President John Hancock. Finally on August 2, 1776 the journal of the Continental Congress record reports: "The declaration of independence being engrossed and compared at the table was signed." which contradicts the popular belief that the Declaration was signed on July 4, 1776, by all the delegates in attendance.

"John Hancock, the President of the Congress, was the first to sign the sheet of parchment measuring 24¼ by 29¾ inches. He used a bold signature centered below the text. In accordance with prevailing custom, the other delegates began to sign at the right below the text, their signatures arranged according to the geographic location of the states they represented. New Hampshire, the northernmost state, began the list, and Georgia, the southernmost, ended it. Eventually 56 delegates signed, although all were not present on August 2. Among the later signers were Elbridge Gerry, Oliver Wolcott, Lewis Morris, Thomas McKean, and Matthew Thornton, who found that he had no room to sign with the other New Hampshire delegates. A few delegates who voted for adoption of the Declaration on July 4 were never to sign in spite of the July 19 order of Congress that the engrossed document "be signed by every member of Congress." Non-signers included John Dickinson, who clung to the idea of reconciliation with Britain, and Robert R. Livingston, one of the Committee of Five, who thought the Declaration was premature." -- National Archives and Records Administration

With the signatures of 56 brave delegates, this new nation born in freedom with an indivisible spirit, proclaimed on a singular piece of parchment their Unanimous Declaration of Independence.

Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:

www.eyewitnesstohistory.com
www.thedeclarationofindependence.org

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IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.
THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

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.

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 the Pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that Governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

HE has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

HE has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

HE has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodations of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyranny only.

HE has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.

HE has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.

HE has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the mean Time, exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.

HE has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

HE has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

HE has made Judges dependent on his Will alone; for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.

HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.

HE has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the Consent of our Legislatures.

HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

FOR quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:

FOR protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

FOR cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:

FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

FOR depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

FOR transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:

FOR abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:

FOR taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.

HE has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection, and waging War against us.

HE has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

HE is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with Circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

HE has constrained our Fellow-Citizens, taken Captive on the high Seas, to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

HE has excited domestic Insurrection amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes, and Conditions.

IN every Stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every Act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them, from Time to Time, of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our Connexions and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the Rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

WE, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connexion between them and the State of Great-Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of Right do. And for the Support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honour.

John Hancock.

GEORGIA, Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton.
NORTH-CAROLINA, Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
SOUTH-CAROLINA, Edward Rutledge, Thos Heyward, junr. Thomas Lynch, junr. Arthur Middleton.
MARYLAND, Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.
VIRGINIA, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Ths. Jefferson, Benja. Harrison, Thos. Nelson, jr. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.
PENNSYLVANIA, Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton, Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson, Geo. Ross.
DELAWARE, Caesar Rodney, Geo. Read.
NEW-YORK, Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frank Lewis, Lewis Morris.
NEW-JERSEY, Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson, John Hart, Abra. Clark.
NEW-HAMPSHIRE, Josiah Bartlett, Wm. Whipple, Matthew Thornton.
MASSACHUSETTS-BAY, Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.
RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE, &c. Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
CONNECTICUT, Roger Sherman, Saml. Huntington, Wm. Williams, Oliver Wolcott.
IN CONGRESS, JANUARY 18, 1777.
ORDERED, THAT an authenticated Copy of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCY, with the Names of the MEMBERS of CONGRESS, subscribing the same, be sent to each of the UNITED STATES, and that they be desired to have the same put on RECORD.
By Order of CONGRESS,
JOHN HANCOCK, President.

Their Lives and Fortunes:
Signers of the Declaration of Independence

FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!

Happy Independence Day!

If you would like to be added to our ping list, let us know.

to all the visitors at The Freeper Foxhole from Snippy and Sam

And a Happy Fourth of July to everybody at the Foxhole

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

Morning alfa6

Re: #8 Aye laddy, thar be part of me handle...

Back to work I must go, gotta keep the soap cookin :-)

back late, much later

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

Howdy, folks,

As you know, I am a bit of a maverick intellectually. My 1861-65 analysis is well off of the main stream, for example.

I suspect that American independence was not particularly desirable nor historically necessary. The problem really rested with the Georges, the Hanoverian kings of Britain, though you will have to take my word for this, since there are about fifty PhD thesis here, as yet unwritten! Big time not PC!

Have to add in the Whig magnates, the big landowners who started and ran what we call the Industrial Revolution. They were more at fault than George III, taken as a group and over time.

Anyway, a gentler hand on the Colonies would have forestalled the whole affair, and the real Kings of Britain and America wold have been up to the task (surely it is unneeded that I name the real King? Well, for a hint, his family name is Stuart. Stuart comes from "steward". The family are the hereditary Stewards of Scotland, and Stewards to the great King Robert the Bruce. The family traces their ancestry to King Robert's daughter, his sole surviving child. And a lot farther back.) The War of Independence took shape between 1756 (French and Indian War) and 1776, a mere twenty years.

Think how things would have turned out! Adams would have been tried at the Old Bailey, and hung. Franklin would have been a Tory.

Could have been, could have been. No World War I or II, no Bolsheviki, no nuclear weapons. Different world, for sure.

Bet you folks did not realize that I am a Monarchist, hey? Sure enough am. Would have settled for General Washington, would prefer President Bush. Am not kidding in the slightest.

Lest any think by the previous that I am not an American Patriot, I went to the Viet Nam war as a volunteer, and have wanted and still want to to to Iraq. Well, yeah, that they won't take me because of my age and health is a little bit of a relief!

SAM, the story of the Siege of Vienna, of King Jan III Sobieski, and of how the Poles saved Civilization (most affirmatively an understatement) has merit, especially in this current day. Those Mongols, Turks, and Tartars were Moslem to the last man, engaged in Jihad.

I have affection for Charles the Hammer, for Roland, for Charlemagne, and especially for the swabs of Lepanto. But Vienna was important.

Good morning Snippy.

Happy Independence Day from EGC of Southwest Oklahoma.

Click on the above picture to link to the Second Annual Viking Kitties Lightning Strike / Free Republic Online Independence Day Fireworks Display.

I want you all to hear of a human-interest story involving an 11-year-old boy and his cousin, Marine Cpl Jeffrey Burgess, who died in Iraq on March 25, 2004.

There is a young man in Plymouth, Mass., Alan Burgess, whose cousin, Marine Cpl Jeffery Burgess, died in Iraq in March. Alan admired his cousin, and called him a hero.

Alan wrote to his cousin when he could, and one thing he remembered his cousin saying was that once the Marines were done for the day patrolling, they would go back to their base and were bored and wanted some way to relax--someting like throwing a baseball back and forth, or a football. Alan sent in a couple of gifts to the troops, including his cousin's friend. Alan admired these Marines, and wanted them to feel that the people back home supported them, and he did all he could to let them know he did not forget their efforts.

Alan's cousin, Jeffrey, died as a result of combat wounds he suffered in Fallujah. Cpl. Jeffrey Burgess died a hero in the eyes of his family, and in those of this 11-year- old cousin, Alan.

Allan chose to honor the memory of his cousin by donating sporting goods and toys to the troops in Iraq, and collected 12 boxes full!

Alan did a great thing, and wanted to do something even larger. Now, in order to expand on the efforts of this young man, a friend of mine who was on his cousin's burial detail spoke with the young man, Alan Burgess, and agreed to work with him to arrange a larger sporting goods drive for the troops and the Iraqi kids that visited the Marine camp daily to talk with and occasionally play with the Marines.

Because I am still in contact with some Marines on active duty, I was brought in to find out what would be needed by the troops or desired by the local Iraqi children, and also how to arrange how to get the goods to Iraq. I have been in contact with a VERY SENIOR 1st Marine Division officer, who I once served on the same ship with 25 years ago. He has placed me in touch with people who are now working on providing an aircraft to fly over what can be collected for the troops and the Iraqi kids!

And that is no exaggeration!

However, the story is NOT about me, or the people I know, it is about Alan Burgess!

This young man's story is what I think we should all tell. He has shown more patriotism than most adults do in their lifetime, and he is only 11 years old. Because of his dream to honor his cousin's death, two old Marines got off their duff to help him succeed, and we even got a VERY SENIOR Marine to chip in and fly the sporting goods and toys to the troops and Iraqi kids!

Alan's dream is for the troops to have things to amuse themselves with on off-duty hours. This SENIOR MARINE wants us to send stuff for the Iraqi kids too, so we hope to do both! But in keeping with Alan's original goal, we need to concentrate on the sporting goods for the troops first.

On June 23, 2004, the Marine Corps League of Orleans, Massachusetts, honored this young man with a ceremony, awarding him a Certificate of Appreciation while the Marine Corps Silent Drill team performed at Orleans in Massachusetts on Cape Cod.

I have enclosed some pictures of the event, with some pictures of the young man.

What I am asking all who are interested is to arrange for a Sporting Goods Collection Drive, to be collected at a central location that you can control or can be controlled, preferablly a Marine Corps/Navy Reserve Center near you, and for you or someone to stay there during the collection, and then forward the sporting goods collected to an address to be determined later.

This is ALREADY A DEFINITE THING HERE IN CONNECTICUT, the collection day is July 17, and the Navy Marine Corps Reserve Centers in Plainville, Connecticut, and the New Haven Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Center.

The types of sporting goods were are specifically requesting are:

baseballs
gloves
footballs
basketballs
and by special request of the Marine Corps, SOCCER BALLS for the Iraqi kids! And any soccer- related equipment.

It does not have to be new equipment, all it has to be is usable equipment that you would not be ashamed to donate for someone to use.

What I am asking here is:

Are there any Freepers with a CLASS-1 or CLASS-A license with a lot of time on their hands, who can pick up a small load at maybe two or more locations that Freepers hold the sporting goods drive at, and then drive the sporting goods to a final location on the East Coast, at a later time to be determined? (Newburgh, New York; Chicopee, Mass.; Cape Cod, Mass.)?

Are there any Freepers willing to call a few trucking companies to ask if they can make a SINGLE FREE toy run across country to pick up the sporting goods and deliver them to an East Coast address, at a later time to be determined?

Are there any Freepers with a desire to hold a sporting goods drive in their town or at the local Reserve Center and can store the collected items at their home or ask if this collection can be stored at the Reserve Center?

It MAY be possible for the sporting goods to be stored at that location (Navy/Marine Corps Reserve Station) for a short period of time until they can be picked up by truck.

In order to protect names, I have to keep some things confidential, but I can say, this is being worked on from the TOP!

We would like to get this on every talk show in the planet, we would like to SWAMP the collection centers with recreational sporting goods for the troops and Iraqi kids, we need to let our Troops KNOW they are NOT forgotten, and we need to let the Iraqi kids KNOW, we are not the bad guys!

For the Connecticut, Southern Mass, Eastern New York, and Rhode Island Freepers, our drive will be July 17, at the Navy/Marine Corps Reserve Centers in Plainville, Connecticut, and New Haven, Connecticut.

Anyone interested, please Freepmail me with how you can help or any questions.

Happy Fourth of July!

Thanks - HAPPY BIRTHDAY USA!