Happy Fourth of July!

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.

The Declaration of Independence

What would you do if someone told you to fight for freedom?

Would you answer the call
or run away like a little p***y?
Cause the only reason that you're here
is folks died for you in the past.
So maybe now it's your turn to die kickin' some ass.

“Freedom Isn’t Free,” Team America: World Police

Obviously, public discourse has eroded considerably since 1776. But at least we have Tex-Mex and college football. Those guys just milked their cows, threw tea in harbors, and sat around and grooved.

Happy July 4th everyone! Hope everyone stays safe, away from oncoming traffic and bottle rocket fights. Remember, only you can prevent forest fires, so how about you back away from the roman candle fights this year, huh?

Today, while you’re mowing through your fourth BBQ cheeseburger and polishing off that last Natural Light in the cooler, take a moment at least to reflect on your incredibly good fortune to live in the United States of America. Unlike others around the world, you did not have to swim, parachute, raft, stow away, or tunnel here to make a life for yourself. Despite what puppet news services serving despotic regimes around the world may say, America is still the greatest country in the world. How do I know? People have voted with their feet. They may hurl Molotov cocktails at our embassies (or in Berkeley they may ban the American flag) but give them the first chance to live here and they’re on that boat. Actions speak far louder than words.

Why is that? Unlike other countries led from the top down, our country leads from the bottom up. Our leaders, collection of dimwits that they are, more or less respond to popular will. Riot police and armed thugs do not decide elections, votes do. (Save your "hanging chad" smack for another day-the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the planned statewide Florida recount was an Equal Protection violation because it applied different standards in different counties). Our economy moves according to people’s choices, not central planning (a lesson the Barackistas will soon learn). The cop on the beat, the teacher who stays after school to help a troubled kid, the youth minister, the lawyer who fights for justice, the nurse who cares for you, your mom, your dad…that is America. And that is the genius of America.

Those who founded this country, and by that I mean not only the Jeffersons, Adamses, and Hamiltons, but also the poor folks moving to Kentucky with a cow and 19 kids (basically my Mom’s family), essentially had two things in mind.

The first was not necessarily religious freedom, but freedom of religion. Freedom to practice whatever religion one wanted (religious choice), as well as the freedom of religions from the organs of state. Its difficult to fathom during these days of Sodom on the Plain, but for most of this country’s existence, religious worship and belief was an enormously important factor in daily life, and religious belief shaped most people’s views and actions. This is still true in many parts of the world, and particularly in parts of the world whose residents are emigrating to the United States. Particularly after the rise of Protestantism, those who founded the United States saw a National Church demanding universal allegiance as not only undesirable, but as potentially threatening to one’s eternal salvation. No mere government should have the right to dictate religious beliefs to its citizens, a idea that is a given today but which was revolutionary at the time. But this freedom was not simply “of” religion, it was freedom “from” religion and specifically from the Church, and freedom of religion to carry on without entanglements with government. Our founders had firsthand experience with Church of England abuses, which simply carried on the abuses of the Catholic bishops they succeeded. The Church forcibly extracted untold wealth from the low and high alike, not only in England, but across Europe. The Church competed with Kings for sovereignty, and at local levels, bishops and archbishops had just as much sway over local governance as mayors and lords. That this seems unimaginable in America today is both a testament to the First Amendment's wisdom, and to those who have protected it. I remind my fellow Christians who might long for religious/governmental connections that Jesus said "My kingdom is not of this world." Can you imagine Victoria Osteen running things? That free-riding lazy stewardess she insulted never had it so good. Or Jimmy Swaggart? Or that crazy racist whack job preacher at Barack Obama’s Chicago church? Shudder.

Freedom of achievement was the other thing. Most everywhere else, your lot in life depends on your parents’ lot in life. Their “station in life.” The rules keep things that way. Wealth is allocated not by merit or achievement, but by accident of birth and in many places, particularly late 18th century Great Britain, one’s fortunes in life were largely set the day one was born. Those countries’ laws discourage social and economic mobility. Work your fingers to the bone, and all you get are bony fingers. The people who founded this country rebelled against that notion. Eat what you kill would be the order of the day. They believed economic wealth should be distributed based on merit and achievement, not to some polo-playing landed idiocracy. That kind of economic order, however, requires laws that preserve equality of opportunity. So, lurking in the background of our most basic laws is this notion that “all men are created equal” (chicks too), and therefore should have equal opportunities in life. Have we succeeded? Of course not entirely. Nothing ever succeeds entirely. How many crappy movies has Steven Spielberg made, for example? There’ve been hideous abuses in this country, sanctioned by law. But I submit that even the most wretchedly poor and downtrodden in this country still have a better life here than they would in many if not most other countries. Air conditioning and three meals a day is living high off the hog in most places. No one here has to worry about the secret police garroting you in the middle of the night, or angry mullahs having you stoned on the town square, nor do women face mutilation for going to school or driving a car. All things considered, even in our social failure, America is still Shangri-la. Or as Chris Rock once put it, no one in Rwanda has lactose intolerance.

Notice, bleeding heart tax and spend liberal Democrat, I did not say all are entitled to “equality.” Nothing guarantees that I’ll have an SUV, beach house, and no wait at Golden Corral. Indeed, this notion of “equality” is inimical to our founding ideals of rewarding hard work, creativity, and industry; sitting on your ass and watching the Price is Right while you collect benefit checks taken out of everyone else’s hard work would not count as one of Jefferson’s “inalienable rights.”

Somehow I got off topic.

My hope for today is that we all reflect on our incredible blessings, that we truly recognize how fortunate we are to be Americans, that we always keep a little bit of that revolutionary spirit, and that no one gets their eyebrows singed off by fireworks.

Next-Mike, King of Freaks