Patriotism

I have spent many Independence Days in the heart of one of America’s great colonial capitals, Williamsburg, Virginia. Being there as the Fife and Drum Corps march down the street to the tunes of “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” the air is charged with a great sense of power and mirth as tourists stand shoulder-to-shoulder along the pebbled Duke of Gloucester Street! The drum major at the front with his lavish mace, and each of the young men march lock step in row after row, dressed in period uniforms or in the workaday garb of the time. That experience in Williamsburg concludes with an actor reading the Declaration as though the citizens are hearing it for the first time! And then an awesome fireworks display in the evening!

The sights, the sounds, the anticipation of the crowd along with the entire ambiance puts you back to those days when men, who were little-known outside their own state’s borders, put their lives and their reputations on the line to declare independence from one of the world’s most powerful war machines at the time.

By April of 1775, American colonists had already engaged British soldiers in battle. So it was natural for colonial leaders to begin the radical debate that would lead to independence. Thomas Jefferson put temper and thoughts on paper:

“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.”

Thomas Jefferson goes on to name specific actions of the King and the Parliament of England that caused flagrant injustice: “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.”

Following the list of offenses, Jefferson continues: “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.”

Take time this month to revisit the great history of our nation’s freedom! If you’ve never read the Declaration of Independence, you can easily find the text online! I’m a proud American for what our forefathers established at great personal cost! And I would encourage our young families to take an opportunity to visit the Colonial Village in Williamsburg at any time! It offers an awesome patchwork of early American history for everyone.

​-Pastor Kevin Lantz