Independence Day

Millions of people all across the United States will celebrate the 4th of July this weekend. It is a celebration of an event that happened 232 years ago when a committee of five men led by Thomas Jefferson John Adams and Benjamin Franklin crafted the Declaration of Independence.

They knew that their actions would lead to months of sacrifice and blood shed. They also knew that no action would bring the greatest tragedy of all, a lack of freedom and independence.

Planted deep inside every human being is a "spirit of independence" crying to step away from the crowd and establish it's own identity.

I believe Independence Day has a two fold significance. As a nation we should always strive to remain free. We do that by registering to vote, by knowing who represents us in the Congress of the United States and in our local government and by staying involved in decisions that effect our cities and schools.

Too many of us struggle to name even our U.S. Senators let alone our state and local leaders. We are often quick to criticize state and local decisions without having any knowledge of why those decisions were made. It is far easier to repeat the "talk show" babble of your favorite host than it is to actually research a topic and discuss it intelligently.

Every time we utter a statement that simply mirrors someone else's opinion with no research of our own, we thumb our noses at our own declaration on independence.

I also believe this holiday should be a reminder that as individuals we enjoy a level of independence in this country that is un-matched anywhere in the world.

Every day of our lives we make hundreds of decisions. We decide what to eat, what to read, what to watch on television, what to say to our children, our spouses, our parents and our friends.

Hundreds of times a day we decide what to think and whether to agree with what we hear.

During the course of a day we will hear radio and television commercials, news and hearsay. We will see pop up ads on our lap tops and phones. We will hear office chatter and gossip.

Hundreds of times a day we will have to decide what to absorb and what to discard. In a split second we will have to decide what is "noise" trying to seep into our brains and what is useful information.

This is where our true independence is tested. Are we going along with the crowd or making a conscious decision to accept or reject what we've heard ourselves?

If your "human filter" is working properly you'll be free to decide for yourself what is good and bad for you. Those decisions will determine whether or not you have a happy and successful life.

I wish you all a fun filled 4th of July weekend. Find a family celebration in your town or city and enjoy the fireworks.

I am not a fan of the illegal and often over sized explosives I hear in the woods behind my house every July. I wonder if the thoughtless people who buy and use them every year think about the effect they have on pets or more important the effect they may have on the men and women recently home from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I'll close with an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them to 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, Libery and the pursuit of Happiness.