Print 
PDF
Founding Father John Adams, our second president, said of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, this... "will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival."
The New York Times is telling us this morning "Whether because of crowds, politics, or a loss of patriotism, some Americans are conflicted about celebrating the Fourth of July."
Celebrate the Great Anniversary? Or be conflicted over crowds and loss of patriotism?
Be informed, not misled.
So why should we celebrate this day?
John Adams continues: "It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever."
The New York Times is, in its way, letting people know that not everybody is as excited as John Adams about the Fourth of July.
In fact, the paper says, "The Fourth can sometimes feel like the New Year’s Eve of the summer."
"Rarely have Americans been so divided on what their country stands for."
The Times then begins its catechism on why we should not see this day as John Adams saw it, but rather as a divisive, disappointing, reflective---even depressing day.
Growing up in Benton, Ark., Malaya Tapp loved celebrating the Fourth of July with her family. “We would go to parades and see firework shows and hang out with friends,” she said. “It was always such a fun holiday.”
But now that she is an adult — she’s 18 and entering college next year — commemorating the holiday isn’t so simple.
It started in 2020 when the Black Lives Matter movement spotlighted many of the injustices across the country. “I lost a lot of my patriotic feelings,” she said.
Ms. Tapp, who now lives in Atlanta, also realized that many festive components of the Fourth of July aren’t that palatable for her.
She explains:
There are fireworks. “It’s hard to tell the difference between guns and fireworks, and here there is always something on the news about a shooting or something, so it makes me nervous,” she said. “They are also bad for the environment. They release a lot of toxic chemicals.”
This year she is skipping the holiday altogether, opting instead to travel with her church youth group to visit a Navajo Nation in Arizona, but the trip was canceled because of a Covid outbreak.
Some Americans, especially younger people, are rethinking whether they want to celebrate Independence Day. A survey by YouGov found that 56 percent of American adults planned to join in the festivities this year.
With a few exceptions that is the tone of the feature story from the New York Times. Other papers have chosen to publish the story as well.
They note that 56% of Americans will celebrate on the 4th.
It is a long, self-centered, narcissistic look at the left and the pain they suffer from living in America, with a few inches of print about those who do celebrate the Fourth, so the fsr-Left newspaper can claim to be fair and balanced---"inclusive" if they actually do claim that anymore.
John Adams continued: "You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these states. Yet through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than the means; that posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even though we [may regret] it, which I trust in God we shall not."
Two very different worldviews. One is the product of learning actual history, the other a product of Leftist indoctrination.
Today on the radio I'll be talking a little about the toil, blood, and treasure that Adams and his colleagues foresaw.
And why America is "great" and why it's a miracle nation and should be celebrated, even if you're labeled a "White Nationalist" by the Left for doing so.
We will be talking about the price each of our Founding Fathers actually paid personally to birth this great nation and the lives that have been given to sustain it.
John Adams would later tell the military on October 11, 1798, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
A year later, he would say, "As no truth is more clearly taught in the Volume of Inspiration, nor any more fully demonstrated by the experience of all ages, than that a deep sense and a due acknowledgment of the growing providence of a Supreme Being and the accountableness of men to Him as the searcher of hearts and righteous distributor of rewards and punishments are conducive equally to the happiness of individuals and to the well being of communities."
Takeaway
The Bible contains all the principles and values needed to create the most blessed, most prosperous, most free nation in the history of the world.
Go ahead and celebrate what God has done. Don't be afraid of the sound of the fireworks, nor the "toxic chemicals" they might put into the air.
You may even hear someone singing "God Bless America," but fear not, you'll get through it.
And if you can't bring yourself to celebrate Independence Day, you can choose not to celebrate.
You're free to do so. You are even free under the law to desecrate the flag if that will make you feel better.
That's why America is great. That's what 56% of us are celebrating.
Faith, Freedom, and Liberty.
Be Blessed.