Happy Independence Day from Michelle
Hello Rotarians and Friends,
I am here wishing you a happy, safe and fun-filled Independence Day. At the Fire Eater house, we honor this day by playing John Phillip Souza marches at full blast all morning, enjoying the liberty to grill, eat and drink merrily, the freedom to play horseshoes, and finally a reading of some freedom speech or document before the big boom town opens up in the sky over Black Hawk. Many choose the Declaration of Independence – the document and spirit this day celebrates – as the standard reading, but there is a fine exerpt of George Washington’s general orders given on July 2, 1776 that I thought I’d share with you. Because it’s good to recall the circumstances of our release, and because everybody but everybody just loves George Washington. If that’s too serious for you, I also added the awesome Founding Fathers Rap from JibJab at the bottom. Word!!
“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army—Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; this is all we can expect—We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our own Country’s Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions—The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the Tyranny meditated against them. Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and shew the whole world, that a Freeman contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.”
Peace, Liberty and Prosperity to all of my Rotarian buddies, their friends and families, and all the rest of us, too.
BOOM!
