After the 4th ...

For Liberty
Courtesy of Michael Quinn Sullivan of Empower Texans, here is a reminder that the work of liberty awaits us on July 5 and thereafter:
Each Independence Day I think of my ancestor Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Two centuries and numerous generations later, I take much inspiration from what he and his colleagues committed to in the summer of 1776.
Just imagine how different the world would be had they not approached independence with a passionate commitment to liberty!
But what if on Friday, July 5, 1776, the men who approved the Declaration of Independence merely headed home believing their work done? Sure, they declared the equality of men, extolling the inalienable rights to life and liberty. It must have felt good to vent frustrations about the king. What if each man decided the talk of freedom shouldn’t inconvenience anyone too much?
Alas, there would have been no “new nation, conceived in liberty.” Rather than Old Glory, our public spaces would today be festooned with the Union Jack – or worse. The world would be a darker place.
As a legal document only the president of the Congress – John Hancock – probably had to sign the Declaration, but the others did as well. Benjamin Franklin reportedly said to Hancock, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
They pledged their “lives… fortunes… and sacred honor” to the cause of independence and liberty. No limits to that pledge; for them, everything was on the line. The cause of liberty was wrapped up in every facet of their lives.
Indeed, they saw the fight for political liberty as inextricably linked to providing for their families, serving in their churches, and ensuring the long-term prosperity of their neighbors.
They didn’t know if they would be hung the next week, bankrupted the next month, expelled from social circles the next year, or lost forever in the ash heap of history. But they believed in the righteousness of the cause. They knew liberty, as messy and inconvenient as it might sometimes be, was worth it for themselves and their posterity.
Let us not forget that it wasn’t just those 56 signers who birthed our nation 233 years ago. Tens of thousands fought against the crown and for liberty, giving life to our democratic republic.
Over the course of the Revolutionary War, the fields of America were watered by the blood of men young and old who believed dying for the chance of liberty was better than living under the yoke of tyranny. Even as so many of their names are lost to history, their legacy is this brilliant city upon a hill, securing the blessings of liberty.
That’s what they were willing to do the day after the Fourth of July in 1776.
In this year, once the parades conclude, BBQs end, and fireworks explode, what will we do for the cause of liberty on the Fifth of July? That’s the day that counts, and each day after. While it’s good to celebrate our national independence, we must daily take action to preserve our liberty.
The cause of liberty – in our cities, counties, schools, state and nation – needs us more than ever. And it is still worth it.