July 4th needs to be a mindful, not a mindless holiday this year. I hope this video lays out some ideas that resonate with how you’re feeling.
It’s America’s 250th birthday, yet unfortunately it’s less a time for raucous celebration than for a sober taking stock. We’re celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence at a time when our government is systematically trashing what it stands for.
We need to do more than celebrate our founding; we need to recommit to it and reclaim it now. For it’s not hyperbole to say the freedom it established for us is hanging by a thread; some, such as Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison, say we have already entered the region of full authoritarianism. I made it clear in today’s video that celebrating July 4th this year is incomplete unless we show up fully on November 3rd. We are, as were our Founders 250 years ago, at a moment of grave peril as well as incredible possibility.
Here’s a transcript of the Declaration of Independence - something that this year, you might want to join with friends and family to read out loud. It’s definitely something to read with your kids. It was a radical document in 1776, and it’s a radical document today.
The men who signed the Declaration were risking their lives in doing so, because if the British had won the war they would have all been hanged as traitors to the King of England. The sign off to the Declaration is as follows: And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
We need to go deep this year, and then rise.
