Happy Independence Day PFers

[Greg]

73878

[SAWBONES]

Amen. Glad and proud to be an American by birth.

[RJ]

73881

I’m a Naturalized Citizen, and it means a lot to me. I visited the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence in Washington D.C. It was very moving.

Happy 4th!

[rd62]

Happy Independence Day

[awp_101]

https://youtu.be/rZMmPWTwTHc

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Put out the flags, lots of them where I live.

[NWshooter]

73886

[okie john]

This holiday was brought to you by citizens with guns.


Okie John

[Kanye Wyoming]

73887

The year after I graduated from college I worked in Center City Philadelphia and lived in Society Hill. Independence Hall was in between. I’d take the bus home at night if it was particularly nasty out, but otherwise a force compelled me to go the Independence Hall route on my walk home and to stop each night to read this plaque. Gave me chills every time. Sadly, for the last 20 years or so it’s been behind a security barricade.

[SCCY Marshal]

https://youtu.be/_MuMM2IR7Fw

Will later be openly carrying a Highway Patrolman to the summit of a mountain overlooking a valley town that puts a good fireworks display. With a tomahawk, flask of bourbon, dog, corncob pipe, and American-made tobacco.

[UNM1136]

Fixing brunch for Mrs. UNM1136 so we can cue up the almost three hour director's cut of 1776. If you don't have your copy yet you can rent it in Amazon Prime for like, four bucks. A tradition of ours.. Drang.

pat

[blues]

https://www.tourlexington.us/sites/g/files/vyhlif3356/f/imce/minutemanstatue-300.jpg

[BehindBlueI's]

I'm working today, and we're having a pitch-in at roll call. I gotta bit o' chunk of pork to start pulling in a few minutes. Smoked it last night, let it rest in a cooler over night.

[JohnO]

https://youtu.be/cB2GDbJi6wo

Declaration of Independence

In Congress, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. 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.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. 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.

[NWshooter]

I'm working today, and we're having a pitch-in at roll call. I gotta bit o' chunk of pork to start pulling in a few minutes. Smoked it last night, let it rest in a cooler over night.

This is how you show your co-workers you love them!!!

[Yung]

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signing_of_the_United_States_Declaration_of_Indepe ndence

https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/1408108371128078340


The Founding Fathers risked everything
Not just their own lives, their fortunes, their land, but the lives of their families
They signed knowing they had just declared war on the greatest military power in the world 1/

With this declaration of war many had their lives completely destroyed
They could have chosen simply to live wealthy and safe
they did not
And they signed their own names knowing the consequences 2/

5 signers were captured in the war and imprisoned
One, Richard Stockton, had to evacuate his family and was "Dragged from his bed by night" and imprisoned 3/

Many of the signers had their homes completely destroyed, looted, burned, raided by the British
It wasn't that they were all targeted necessarily but that this is the war they had wrought, in the name of freedom 4/

One signer had his sons captured and imprisoned, one signer lost his son in the war
John Witherspoon lost his son 5/

One signer died from wounds in the battle
Button Gwinnett
his name, his honor, and his life 6/

Francis Lewis had his home raided, presumably because he signed.
His wife was taken prisoner and used in a prisoner exchange 7/

Lewis Morris had his home taken and used as a barracks for soldiers.
This was taken by the Continental Army
The British then came later and destroyed his property 8/

Several of the signers saw their homes looted during war foraging as the British, not as direct retaliation
Walton, Rutledge, Middleton, Ellery, Hall, Gwinnett, Clymer, and Heyward 9/

Others had homes that fell to areas of British occupation
Rush, Adams, Hancock, Wilson, Franklin, Morris 10/

There are many more legends about what happened too, some stories that are hard to verify
But I think about this history and the amount of courage and determination that it took to say to the greatest military power the world had known and say
No More 11/

War stories and history are often exaggerated
We make our leaders out to be great heroes
Perhaps many of these stories from the Revolution are indeed exaggerated
However 12/

The one thing that is true is that these men risked everything, even their wives and children
Maybe we view that as reckless today when it comes to personal endeavors
But these men saw it as necessary 13/

One thing is true
These men knew they were likely to lose everything
They went all in against a power they knew they could not defeat
Many say that without French intervention it was all over
With their help we won 13/

Imagine rising to your feet
Looking into the eyes of the greatest military power you know you cannot defeat
and saying
Fuck You 14/

The Founding Fathers were absolute madlads

Lets not forget the absolute boss that was Hugh Mercer
who refused to surrender when surrounded and was stabbed and beaten to death


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Mercer#The_American_Revolution

The next day, January 3, 1777, Washington's army was en route to Princeton, New Jersey. While leading a vanguard of 350 soldiers, Mercer's brigade encountered two British regiments and a mounted unit. A fight broke out at an orchard grove and Mercer's horse was shot from under him. Getting to his feet, he was quickly surrounded by British troops who mistook him for George Washington and ordered him to surrender. Outnumbered, he drew his saber and began an unequal contest. He was finally beaten to the ground, then bayoneted repeatedly—seven times—and left for dead.[23]

[blues]

I visited that battle site at Princeton. Hallowed ground.

[Kanye Wyoming]

My grandfather lived in the center of Trenton. Whenever he picked me up at the Trenton train station, which was probably hundreds of times over the years, we would drive by the Old Barracks. And every time he would say: “You know what that is? It’s the Old Barracks. You know what happened there? That’s where Colonel Rall and the Hessians were. And that’s where George Washington attacked after crossing the Delaware on Christmas night. That was the Battle of Trenton.”

[Coyotesfan97]

73903

One of my favorite 4th of July memes. Hope everyone has a safe and happy day.

[Clusterfrack]

Cheers, P-F friends! Happy 4th!

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210704/e8a49e720e51f8910d9ca0a3e8213bf0.jpg

[Chuck Whitlock]

Kinda my jam.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkDYrCCmUIA

[HeavyDuty]

This is my first Independence Day in one of the original colonies, and I feel the weight of history. My town predates the Revolution, all around me were men and women who made their choice to be free. It’s sobering.

[Shades]

Happy 4th of July to all P-Fers! Dogs and burgers on the grill and the usual accompaniments chez Shades. Went to the local parade yesterday and we'll have fireworks tonight.

I've been to Concord and Lexington and, along with the Jefferson Memorial, they're places where all the words just dry up and all I can do is stand in awe. I live a pretty comfy life these days. Would I have what it takes to bet it all - life, fortune, honor - on a long odds bet to preserve what really matters? I hope I don't have to find out. Maybe after Mrs. Shades goes to bed I'll pour a tot of Sagamore Farms rye whiskey and contemplate that question. I hope you all have a wonderful and peaceful Independence Day.

[BehindBlueI's]

This is how you show your co-workers you love them!!!

My pulled pork got good reviews. Since there was about a solid hand full left over, I guess they liked it. There were pans of hamburgers and hot dogs left. :D

The LT made some pretty good ribs, too. Credit where credit is due. One of my direct reports brought turkey legs that were quite enjoyable as well. Then there was a metric shit ton of chips, sweets of both store bought and homemade varieties, pasta salad, jalapeno poppers (homemade, both with and without bacon), etc. For roughly 35-ish people it was a pretty good spread.