Independence Day – What Does It Mean To You?

I invite you, dear reader, to share briefly, 250 words or less, why you are a glad you live in the USA.  Now, more than ever, we need to remember that ours is a nation that strives for the highest ideals of liberty and integrity, and we are privileged to live under a Constitution that affirms the inherent dignity and God-given rights of every individual.  We are blessed to call America home.

Share what living in this nation means to you.  You may want to read about America’s founding principles, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence.  Consider what each word in the attached documents means: allegiance, liberty, justice, a more perfect union, all men, the consent of the governed, usurpations, despotism, sacred honor.

I encourage you also to express gratitude for those who have served in the Armed Forces as well as for your local police officers, firemen, and first responders.

I will weigh and post appropriate replies in the next week before July 11.  You are welcome to specify your essay “Anonymous” and I will not publish your name.  I reserve the right to edit without your permission any essay.  I will certainly try to not misrepresent your views.  Please understand I may not be able to publish everyone who responds.  You can do your own blog if you do not approve of my edits or exclusions.

Teach these principles to your children, discuss them with your friends, be open to divergent opinions, and avoid listening only to voices that agree with you (FB likes, etc.).

The Pledge of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

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.

[…]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 connection 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 Honor.

Intermezzo: WordPress Aggravations

  This is an intermezzo blog, i.e. one between my Saturday/Sunday blogs, just to express my frustration with my PAID site at WordPress.com.  I was trying to experiment with a homepage so that when someone comes here, they can look up a basic philosophy of life page, my bio, and then sorted blogs based on themes.

To attempt the experimental pages I opened “New Sites” on the Dashboard, but when everything new required a special block editor, “Gutenbooger,” I decided to quit trying.  Seems any new sites one opens now MUST use WP’s stupid block editor unless you have a Business or higher fee site, in which case you can upload a Classic Editor plugin.

So after deleting the ‘dummy sites’ I was locked out of this regular blog site (which has a grand-fathered-in access to the Classic Editor).  After four days of lousy advice from WP and sites online telling me how to do what I had already tried and a couple of angry sessions with someone else over how to do this, I finally got some good direction from one of the WP forums.

Instead of logging in with my email which would take me to a ‘dead’ dummy site which no longer existed, he suggested I log in with my user id, and THAT finally worked!

My aggravation is that whenever some company, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Google, WP, etc., becomes too big for their britches they lose contact with the little guys they originally intended to serve.  Similar to government?

So I’ll probably stay here with WP as long as they allow the Classic Editor at my level of subscription.  They say until 2022.  But just in case, I’m saving all my blogs off line so that I can move everything to another smaller platform where you can call and speak to a human for less than $99 if you ever need help. (I did NOT pay for “concierge service”!)

Just venting today, but got my blog site back.  Maybe later, I’ll get some help from someone who knows how to set up a homepage without messing up this blog site and having to beg for help from a dehumanizing impersonal corporation. 😦

Nearing the End

Half way through December, the year winds down to the end with only two weeks left to go.  I am planning to cease blogging for some time after January 6, and hope you enjoy reading the last few blogs.  I have no idea how WordPress will handle my lack of blogging, if they will cut me loose and/or delete blogs when I quit for a while.  But I suppose I can always come back and open a new one if these blogs disappear.

What will next year hold?  Some will die.  Some will prosper.  Some will experience searing pain.  Some will be comforted.  Some will rejoice, some will mourn.
“Since no one knows the future,
    who can tell someone else what is to come?
As no one has power over the wind to contain it,
    so no one has power over the time of his death.” (Ecclesiastes 8:7-8)

Of course, what we really mean when we ask such questions is “What will next year hold for  me?”  We are such a selfish lot, only concerned with our immediate comfort and conditions.  Did God intend for us to be so self-absorbed?  With seven billion of us here, plus the approximately seven billion who have been here and gone, I seriously doubt it.  That’s 14,000,000,000; that’s a lot of zeros; and some of us feel more like zeroes than others. 😦

Back to the Garden (because I love the stories of Genesis, hidden somewhat in the gray mists of the ancient past).  Adam and Eve seemed blissfully unaware of their own condition until the Serpent came along and needled Eve into wondering if The God Who Is There was holding out on them.  The issue was trust.  Who would she believe?  The God who had supplied everything “very good” for them, or this lovely creature who said there was something missing.  (See Genesis 3.)

We know how that turned out.  And it has been that way ever since with the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve (or of Noah and his nameless wife, if you prefer).  The baby’s first cry is for comfort as he/she is removed from the warmth and darkness and quiet of the womb.  In an instant the infant becomes the center of its unknown universe, and everything in his/her life will be about “ME.”

So what advice, what considerations, can I lead your mind to as we wind down another year?  “The Preacher,” Solomon, said it better than I ever could:

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
    and the years approach when you will say,
    “I find no pleasure in them,”
before the sun and the light
    and the moon and the stars grow dark,
    and the clouds return after the rain;
when the keepers of the house tremble,
    and the strong men stoop,
when the grinders cease because they are few,
    and those looking through the windows grow dim;
when the doors to the street are closed
    and the sound of grinding fades;
when people rise up at the sound of birds,
    but all their songs grow faint;
when people are afraid of heights
    and of dangers in the streets;
when the almond tree blossoms
    and the grasshopper drags itself along
    and desire no longer is stirred.
Then people go to their eternal home
    and mourners go about the streets.
Remember him—before the silver cord is severed,
    and the golden bowl is broken;
before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,
    and the wheel broken at the well,
and the dust returns to the ground it came from,
    and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.
Now all has been heard;
    here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
    for this is the duty of all mankind.
For God will bring every deed into judgment,
    including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7; 12-14)

Happy New Year.

Sometimes . . .