Rose’s 4 th Of July Message

This fourth of July should serve as a reminder that we have been given a very special gift. A gift of freedom by way of a Republic. But that freedom, that republic is holding on by a thread. Our nation is in great need of healing and every one of us are the solution to its healing. No one else. Nothing else. Every effort must be made to preserve our constitution and our liberties. I know that as you consider the state of affairs in America (and throughout the globe) you are dismayed and discouraged. I share that dismay. Those who have been charged to protect our Constitution and our liberties have failed us.

Think about this: The year was 1787. The place: The State House in Philadelphia. The same location the Declaration of Independence was signed 11 years earlier. It was over four months, (four months!), that 55 delegates met and deliberated over this process. They sacrificed four months of their time to frame a constitution for a federal republic.

God bless them.

When Benjamin Franklin left Independence Hall, when the Constitutional Convention had come to an end, on the final day of deliberation in 1787, A woman stopped him to ask; “Well doctor” what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?”

Franklin responded: “A republic, if you can keep it.” I truly believe that is the challenge we face today. We have been given a Republic. Can we keep it?

We must keep it.

It was Franklin who reminded us that: “Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.” Important point when one considers that God – not man - is the author of our freedom – then no man can take that freedom away. It is a gift from God and God alone.

We owe our Founding Fathers a life dedicated to preserving our Constitution – a Constitution that provides for freedom for all. We must be willing to put in whatever time and energy necessary to ensure a free and prosperous future for other generations. For generations of people that we will never know. It was done for us.

Can we now do the same?

We are in an amazing time in the history of our nation. Do you realize we are living in a time in history with an opportunity that seldom presents itself. An opportunity to do something great – something almost as great as what our founding fathers had done for us. They established our freedoms as they saw them handed down by God. We, now, are being called upon to uphold and protect those freedoms, as they have never been so severely threatened since they were proclaimed those 248 years ago.

What a calling we have. What an opportunity. But – it is a fleeting opportunity. As it was in the early days of July in 1776 - exactly 248 years ago. Continental congress was to embark on the most radical event of all time. Thirteen Colonies were to become a new nation. They declared that the name of the newly formed nation fighting for its independence from Great Britain would be “The United States.”

Everyone in the room agreed it needed to be done; they must declare independence from the tyrannical rule that was suffocating them. It was the timing that caused them to hesitate. And who could blame them? They knew that once they made that declaration of independence from the King, they were putting everything at risk; their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. That required a great amount of courage. It was their hesitation that threatened to delay the process. Were they ready for the ramifications?

John Witherspoon sensing their hesitation made an appeal; “There is a tide in the affairs of men. We perceive it now before us. To hesitate is to consent to our own slavery.” (Don’t you have that same sense of a fleeting opportunity?) Witherspoon finished his appeal, and the Delegates approved the Declaration.

Historians tell us that many of those men, having immediately recognized the magnitude of what they had just done, wept openly. They wept! While other bowed their heads in prayer. These very smart men, who gave us our freedom, these very articulate men, who knew how to spell out the case for that freedom, these very brave men, who knew that this was dangerous business, this independence, wept.

These Spiritual men who knew that God and God alone was the author of their faith and freedom, bowed before Him. Because they were once slaves to an oppressive government and would now be free, they wept. If they could see us now, would they not weep once more? Should it be said of us that we were once free and were now, again, slaves to an oppressive government?

God forbid.

We find ourselves in every bit of a crisis that our founding fathers found themselves. And just as in Paine’s time we find ourselves in a struggle. We know as he did --- that “what we obtain too cheap – we esteem too lightly.” It is what we care for most lovingly that has the greatest value. If asked what it is that you value most to leave as an inheritance to your children – what would that be? An antique? A sports car? A lovely home? Precious metals? Stocks?

Or should it be something more precious? Like liberty. Shouldn’t we desire to secure that inheritance for them? Consider these words from Ronald Reagan’s third State of the Union speech and take solace in them for they are as true today as they were when they were first spoken: “How can we not believe in the greatness of America? How can we not do what is right and needed to preserve this last best hope of man on earth? After all our struggles to restore America, to revive confidence in our country, hope for our future, after all our hard-won victories earned through the patience and courage of every citizen, we cannot, must not, and will not turn back. We will finish our job. How could we do less? We’re Americans.

‘Carl Sandburg said, “I see America not in the setting sun of a black night of despair . . . I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun. Fresh from the burning, creative hand of God . . . I see great days ahead for men and women of will and vision.

I’ve never felt more strongly that America’s best days and democracy’s best days lie ahead. We’re a powerful force for good.

With faith and courage, we can perform great deeds and take freedom’s next step. And we will. We will carry on the tradition of a good and worthy people who have brought light where there was darkness, warmth where there was cold, medicine where there was disease, food where there was hunger, and peace where there was only bloodshed.

Let us be sure that those who come after us, will say of us, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.”

Let’s finish this race towards preserving freedom.