Let’s celebrate this great country as well as all those who have fought and died to make it such a special land!
Hope everyone has a great day today
Hope everyone has a great day today
Happy Birthday America!
- Thread starter newell138
- Start date
Wishing EVERYONE a safe, healthy and happy Independence Day.
You know what they call 4th of July over here?
Saturday
Never forget that despite our problems and our differences we're all one people, Americans.
Wishing all of you a happy, healthy and safe Independence Day.
Saturday
Never forget that despite our problems and our differences we're all one people, Americans.
Wishing all of you a happy, healthy and safe Independence Day.
Still the best country in the world. Progress will keep it that way. Have a good 4th everyone.
America is only what Americans can make it and as Americans we can make it anything.(my quote)
Franklin was walking out of Independence Hall after the Constitutional Convention in 1787, when someone shouted out, “Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?”
To which Franklin supposedly responded, with a rejoinder at once witty and ominous: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Franklin was walking out of Independence Hall after the Constitutional Convention in 1787, when someone shouted out, “Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?”
To which Franklin supposedly responded, with a rejoinder at once witty and ominous: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
+1
God bless our founding fathers and this great nation!
:USA: :America: :AmericanFlag::Celebrate: :Woot::USA: :America: :AmericanFlag::Celebrate: :Woot::USA: :America: :AmericanFlag:
You know, it's really 244 +2 days. The DoI was actually signed on July 2nd.
:)
:Sly:
Yeah but 2nd of July doesn't role off your tongue like the 4th!!
Yeah but 2nd of July doesn't role off your tongue like the 4th!!
Happy 4th of July everyone. I hope everyone enjoys themselves and be safe.
Happy Birthday America!
Very proud to be an American!
Very proud to be an American!
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
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. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
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.
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. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
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.
Lucky to be an American. The people who served should be proud.
Here's some Disney 4th fireworks on youtube...
Here's some Disney 4th fireworks on youtube...
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:USA: :America: :AmericanFlag:ABSOLUTELY NO QUESTION ABOUT THAT.:USA: :America: :AmericanFlag:
Growing up, this was a holiday where no one cared about your political affiliation (or that of the president, governor, etc.). That has changed over time (I don't care "who started it")... let's go back to that and just celebrate that this is a great country that men and women laid their lives in the line for before it even started. Happy birthday, America!
At the appropriate time today (which could be right now, I won't judge), let us all raise a glass to those 56 heroes who put both their names and their lives on the line.
Yes, they were racists. They were sexists. They were very parochial-minded in terms of protecting their own interests, which for some was the preservation of slavery. And some of them were just plain nasty guys.
Doesn't matter. Still heroes. Not mutually exclusive.
Yes, they were racists. They were sexists. They were very parochial-minded in terms of protecting their own interests, which for some was the preservation of slavery. And some of them were just plain nasty guys.
Doesn't matter. Still heroes. Not mutually exclusive.
Yet in the context of their time; they were truly visionary and forward thinking. Revolutionary but able to form the blue print for the country which allows for things and changes in society none of them could have ever truly imagined. It is a remarkable achievement of human development and the common cause of America, with all its faults, must be celebrated.
My Dad said my Grandfather, an Irish immigrant I am named after and who passed before I was born used to say that all the time and would end it with a “bar none!”
In one generation, my family have gone from where my Grandmother (his wife who I was lucky enough to meet) and also an Irish immigrant was a chambermaid at the Essex and Sussex in Spring Lake to now where my Dad (one of their 4 kids) can sit in his chair overlooking Wreck Pond in Sea Girt watching Rutgers (where he sent two sons) play a B1G game with the E&S copula in the distance.
No lottery or inheritance just hard work. Where else?
Happy Birthday, America!
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nice (always one of my favorites besides conjunction-junction) -but wrong one for today.
Mindset of HARD work vs. Entitlement. I bet this board is filled with first time in family college grads.
I'm the son of a secretary and truck druver who's house burned down with no insurance at 7 years old.
Being in the 3rd state to ratify the constitution always makes this day extra special to me. Washington likely walked down the road I live on.
In his final speech given on the last day of his presidency, Ronald Reagan noted that you can go live in France, but you can never become a Frenchman. You can go live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you can never become a German or a Turk or a Japanese. But anyone from anywhere in the world can BECOME AMERICAN.
In the context of world history, that is truly phenomenal.
For those interested, watch episode 2 (Independence) of the HBO John Adams miniseries today.
All three of my Grandfather’s sons served their Country....my Dad in the Air Force (where he found out he was color blind) during Korea, Uncle in the Navy during WWII and another Uncle in the Marines.
My Dad put himself thru college AFTER he had my brother, sister and I. His older brother helped build Las Vegas and was the head guy for anything on maintenance side of Caesar’s. His younger brother helped make Xerox to what we know it is now. They didn’t listen to him when he said don’t sell the mouse idea.
One of my ancestors was an immigrant who came to the US via Canada. When the call came in 1861 he volunteered for the Union Army. According to his company's roster he was the oldest (36) enlisted man in the company, older than most of the officers. His son followed serving with Sherman thru the south.
Immigrant yet felt duty bound.
Immigrant yet felt duty bound.
Happy Fourth of July to All of America . It is evident in this thread there are many who have great Pride and Love for our Nation . We have seen both the Best and Worst of times in our history somehow we have managed to overcome many faults and imperfections in our society. We must all celebrate and come together as One Nation Under God. For all those men and women who served and died fighting for OUR freedoms R.I.P.
My parents game from Ireland. My mother worked as a maid when she first came here. Including my cousins, who where also first generation, we have had success in America. In fact, one of my cousins was NYFD, plus his two sons. An other cousin is married to a retired NY fireman. As my mother use to say “ I’m not Irish anymore, I’m American”.
Two of my four Great-Grandfathers served in WW1:
Both of my Grandfathers served (one at the end of WW2, the other in Korea):
And my Father, MM3 Romatowski, served aboard the USS Compass Island (AG-153) during Vietnam. He was on track to attend Navy Nuclear Power School, but was injured and honorably discharged:
These are MY "American Heros"
Both of my Grandfathers served (one at the end of WW2, the other in Korea):
And my Father, MM3 Romatowski, served aboard the USS Compass Island (AG-153) during Vietnam. He was on track to attend Navy Nuclear Power School, but was injured and honorably discharged:
These are MY "American Heros"
America is still often described as a "young country" and that's not entirely true in an expanded, more comprehensive view. America has the oldest surviving constitution. The others that follow in durability are mostly constitutional monarchies.
America is also part of Western Civilization. It could have never sprung-up in isolation. Many of its founding principles go back to Europe, Greeks, Romans, the bibles etc. Of course, in order for the principles to gain control, the people had to transcend the tribal, barbarian passions that made early Europe a hell hole. Not everyone was on that transcendence train, but not everyone had to be. The cream eventually rose to the top. That's still true to some degree, but the test for the ages is at hand. Happy 4th and good luck.
I'm the son of Iranian immigrants. Can you imagine how shitty that was? When people would try to make a social justice point by asking "raise your hand if you would trade places with a black person," I would raise my hand, sincerely (although people usually thought I was being a smart ass). I received some extremely poor treatment during my childhood which was renewed after 9/11 as I was first entering the adult world. I didn't know a single other Iranian family so it was a very insecure existence in that respect. Mistreatment came at the hands of whites and - just as frequently - blacks. The only thing they could agree on seemed to be hatred for Iranians!
With all the terrible memories that I have from these times I was even then always a proud American. The insult I heard which always cut the deepest was "you're not American." Ouch! That stung every time. Because there's nothing else I'd prefer to be than an American. My late father left a cushy situation in Iran at 18 years of age, barely could speak a word of English and enrolled in a small University in Tennessee of all places. He taught me that you can't be a general unless you first learn to be a good soldier. Every day he demanded good grades, good manners, hard work, respect for authority and the highest ethical standards. Sometimes I even met those expectations.
I don't consider those to be the values of an Iranian immigrant. I consider those American values. If you have them, even a kid from the most hated country of our time can make it happen here.
God Bless America. Happy Independence Day!
With all the terrible memories that I have from these times I was even then always a proud American. The insult I heard which always cut the deepest was "you're not American." Ouch! That stung every time. Because there's nothing else I'd prefer to be than an American. My late father left a cushy situation in Iran at 18 years of age, barely could speak a word of English and enrolled in a small University in Tennessee of all places. He taught me that you can't be a general unless you first learn to be a good soldier. Every day he demanded good grades, good manners, hard work, respect for authority and the highest ethical standards. Sometimes I even met those expectations.
I don't consider those to be the values of an Iranian immigrant. I consider those American values. If you have them, even a kid from the most hated country of our time can make it happen here.
God Bless America. Happy Independence Day!
Happy Birthday to our Great Nation! May it always remain so.
Corey and I just raised the American Flag in the driveway as we did on Flag Day. Of course, one great flag deserves another, so the Block R flag is proudly flying underneath it.
Corey and I just raised the American Flag in the driveway as we did on Flag Day. Of course, one great flag deserves another, so the Block R flag is proudly flying underneath it.
