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On Independence Day: In the Shadow of Our Fathers

Below is something my Uncle Rex wrote for me a while back when I was in a low moment, verging on despair because so many of our fellow-Americans are still asleep and it seemed to me cannot be awoken. I have posted it before, but I think it is especially appropriate to post today, on Independence Day, when so many of us are wondering “what’s there to celebrate?” There is so much that has happened and is happening that is destroying everything that the Founding Generation fought, bled, died, and struggled for, that it can truly seem like a farce, a sick joke, to attend parades, watch fireworks, or do anything in celebration on our Independence Day, as John Adams called on us to do.

A reading of the Declaration of Independence today (which is something we should all do to honor our heritage) will show the stark reality that many of the most egregious of the “long train of abuses” enumerated in the Declaration as causes of taking up arms and causes of separation, are now happening again, to us. Our forefathers threw off a corrupt and oppressive empire, and while we slept, another has been built up around us, and over us, step by step, brick by brick, and we are now in a nearly directly parallel position that the Founders were in in 1772-1774: On the very eve of Revolution. And we are here, in large part, because so many of our countrymen have been asleep at their watch for decades, and many are STILL asleep. And so, it is easy to despair. I will have more to say later, but please read this – Stewart Rhodes

In the Shadow of our Fathers

The liberty we possess as Americans is not government granted but God given. It is what our Fathers call “Our natural birthright.” Therefore, it is not ours to give away nor to relinquish; for in essence, it is given to us as caretakers for the up and coming generations of Americans yet unborn.

It is as if we are running a marathon with the baton of American liberty clutched in our hands. Our goal and our purpose is to carry it safely and pass it on to the next generation of American runners so they in turn may pass it on to the next and so forth.

But – if because we cannot see the finish line and the odds against us seem insurmountable; if we become overwhelmed and lose our will to continue the race and succumb to the temptation to sit it out; if we lose the hope in the contest and give up the race, then all is lost and American liberty is no more. The fate of future Americans is weighed in the balance and we as a free people are in charge of the outcome for no man or group of men holds in their hands the final answer to the issue but ourselves. It is up to us to run the good race and fight the good fight; we as individuals as well as we as a team, for no one person carries the American baton of liberty by themselves, we are all in this together till the end…and be assured there is no end, at least not until Providence dictates it to be so.

When in the darkest hours of the year 1772, when disunion against British tyranny seemed eminent, Warren of Plymouth was desponding and said:

“The towns are dead and cannot be raised without a miracle.”

Samuel Adams responded: “I am very sorry to find in you the least approach towards despair. Nil desperandum (never despair) is a model for you and me. All are not dead; and where there is a spark of patriotic fire, we will rekindle it.” (Bancroft”History of the United States” Vol. III pg. 426)

And indeed they did!

In late December of 1772, during that same low ebb, the Boston Committee of Correspondence wrote:

“By the people’s thorough understanding of their civil and religious rights and liberties, encouraged to trust in God that a day was hastening when the efforts of the colonists would be crowned with success, and the present generation furnish an example of public virtue worthy of imitation of all posterity.” (IBID pg. 428)
Today is that day! (4 July)

Therefore, let us be a worthy example for our posterity by walking worthily of the freedom whereby we have been made free and by never returning back to the beggarly elements of slavery; for we are not children of the bond woman of old Europe but we are free born under these western skies, and free we must remain, for you are children of noble parental blood – they never quit, neither must you.

The world watches what you do here today with the greatest of anxiety for if we fail, the light of mankind’s hope for liberty and freedom will be extinguished and the world will be thrown into an age darker, sinister and more slavish than mankind has ever experienced.

Finally brethren, be not counted as the generation who lost all after it has been given all by those who gave all, for if you do, your posterity shall rise up in their slavish toil and curse you.

–Rex. Ruth, Founder, The Educational Institute for Governmental Studies

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