Roblog

If you know what we celebrate on July 4^th, please say so.

The holiday is Independence Day—not July 4^th or the 4^th of July or even just the 4^th. We celebrate Independence Day.

I hope it’s the case that most patriotic folk understand the significance of July 4, 1776 to the Declaration of Independence, as it was on that date that it was approved in Philadelphia by the Second Continental Congress. By this declaration the colonies were now free and independent states. 

The Declaration of Independence was hardly the beginning; the document itself details the years of reasonable, lawful redress the colonies pursued, not only to no avail, but in fact to even more oppression.

Nor, of course, was the Declaration of Independence the end of the matter; it set into motion a course from which there could be no return, even though by December of that year colonial morale had fallen so low that many began to suspect that the Declaration was a high and horrible hubristic mistake. The turn of events that followed Christmas Day, 1776 (truly one of the most powerful displays of God’s providence outside of Scripture) renewed hope and empowered our fledgling country’s resolve—hope in the ideals embodied in the Declaration and resolve to give all that was necessary to make them a reality, all the way to Yorktown.

Unfortunately, largely because of the revisionist zeal of the progressives and critical theorists who run America’s public education, whole swaths of Americans have a truncated understanding of the beginnings of the United States of America at best, and a totally ignorant view at worst.  Google “man on the street why do we celebrate July 4” and prepare to grieve. Here’s a smattering:

• we declared our independence from California
• we won freedom from the South
• Abraham Lincoln signed the Declaration of Independence in 1964—or 1984
• the purpose of July 4 is fireworks

On one video not one of multiple people asked could identify a single Founding Fathers—though one young man suggested Jeremiah—nor the year of the Declaration’s signing.

All of these were celebrating “July 4^th” or “the 4^th of July”—without a single a clue as to why.

This is why those of us who do have a clue should wish people a happy Independence Day and, if possible, offer a bit of grateful historical review when we do it. It may seem small, but it is in fact huge. We must do it not only to push back against the ignorance but also to contradict the intentional revisionism of social justice warriors, grievance politicos, sexuality/gender wardens, and entitled, spoiled entertainers—all of whom generally despise traditional morality and patriotism as jingoistic, racist, homophobic, etc.

So, please, stop contributing to the general ignorance and progressive agenda by celebrating the 4^th of July. Be part of the resistance movement! And, in the spirit of such resistance, do something else radical–read the Declaration of Independence!

And Happy Independence Day.

Tagged: 1776, 4th of July, Declaration of Independence, Founding Fathers, Fourth of July, history, Independence Day, July 4th, MAGA