Independence Day

It's easy to sit back this 4th of July and just kick back with your beer and brat and enjoy life as an American.

But take a moment and jump on the time machine dated 1776 and think of how life was "in the day".

First, your life was almost totally a function of what European aristocracy you were born in to.

Second, there was no free speech as we know it today. In fact, free speech and self determination is still foreign to most of the world 233 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Third, if you pissed off a monarch, your punishment would be a lot harsher than spending time at Guantanamo.

Nothing annoys me more than the dolts and douche bags who hide behind "freedom of speech" when they have never paid, nor are willing to pay, a price for the freedom they enjoy. In fact, many of these people refuse to even provide the proper respect to those who did pay the price for our freedom's.

If you've ever read that email that circulates regarding the futures of the Declaration signers, you get misleading and some out rights falsehoods about what became of the signers (see snopes). But here is one thing that is true. Many of the signers were made men from the kingdom. It took incredible courage and vision to challenge a paradigm of monarch rule which was the only structure of government humanity HAD EVER KNOWN.

Democracy and self determination would have been late night, Saturday, science fiction TV viewing if the colonists would have had TV and Bruce Boxleitner . And for much of the world, it still is.

Most of the signers could have retreated back to their plantations and shipping businesses and had a great life on easy street for their remaining days.

But all put their fortunes and titles on the line for a paradigm of rule so foreign to the world many ruling monarchs probably thought it was a practical joke.

Have a great Fourth and consider what God and men of considerable courage and vision blessed this nation with.