What would our founders think? This is the fourth year I’ve been privileged to write a column for the Lakeland Times for Independence Day. It is an honor for me to do so. With celebratory intentions I’ve always attempted to write about our glorious nation and its bright future. Apologizing in advance, this column will not entirely reflect that objective. Our founding fathers provided us with two of the greatest documents ever written: The Declaration of Independence which we celebrate today and the Constitution. Those two magnificent instruments set us apart from every nation in the world, guiding us as we became the model for others to follow. How would our founding fathers judge us today? Thomas Paine’s musings from the distant past offers us a partial answer to that question. He wrote: “A thousand years hence, perhaps less, America may be what Europe is now…the noblest work of human wisdom, the grand scene of human glory, the fair cause of freedom that rose and fell.” What would possibly cause him to prophesize the fall of the United States? A significant concern was explained succinctly by Thomas Jefferson as he philosophized “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free,…
Tag: July 4th
Below is a column written by Gary Mienert in the Lakeland Times paper from the north woods. Thanks Gary. Rebellion…..it’s happening In just a few days we will be celebrating the 4th of July holiday. To those who might not recall, especially the youth, it’s also known as “Independence Day” which commemorates our independence from England in 1776 after a long and bloody war. A war by all odds the colonists should have lost. This usually festive holiday seems to have a pall hovering over it as concern for our republic continues to escalate. Our country, once the greatest in the world, is staggering under terribly defective and divisive Federal bureaucracies. Regularly there are increasing incidents which run contrary to our basic rights. Fifty middle school students from N. Carolina visited the 9/11 Memorial in New York. As a choir they began to sing our National Anthem to the delight of other visitors. Immediately a security guard stopped their beautiful performance. It was considered a public demonstration and therefore forbidden! In Murfreesboro, Tennessee ten students between the ages of 6 & 10 were taken from the school in handcuffs because a video had shown them watching an off-campus scuffle…
