Disconnected Independence Day
A noted scholar in early American history, Professor Herbert Sloan of Barnard College, points out that unlike many nations, the United States does not link its origins to a grandiose military victory.
Take a moment to ponder the profundity of his statement.
Our Declaration of Independence was inspirational 
several years before Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered his beleaguered army at Yorktown in 1781.
It wasn't the occasional military engagement that fueled the drive for independence, but rather the fervent change in the hearts and souls of Americans to oppose tyranny and embrace liberty.
This relentless hunger for Liberty was indeed our true national genesis and the unshakable bedrock upon which the American Revolution was founded.
Independence Day marks the adoption of the document that boldly proclaimed to the entire world that our fledgling dream of a nation did not commemorate war, bloodshed, and death, but instead celebrated life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Its impact on the world's established nations was astounding.
Even so, was there a singular catalyst that inflamed Americans to engage in a years-long bloody rebellion until victorious, no matter the communal cost, no matter the personal sacrifice?
Government disconnect
Most historians believe a significant provocation for revolution was the Americans' deeply-felt sense of disconnect from the seat of royal authority.
Author and columnist Derek Maul opined that whether it was taxation without representation or the tendency of crown administrators to act without regard for the lives and property of the colonists, aggrieved resentment festered.
To be sure, the gulf between the colonists and their detached, dispassionate, imperial government became as wide, deep, and dangerous as the ocean that divided them.
On the eve of our 232nd Independence Day, this aspect is an important point upon which to reflect because Americans are again experiencing a disconnect between themselves and the privileged halls of power -- in Washington, D.C.
And the gulf is growing wider with each passing day.
Abuses and usurpations
In the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson listed "a long train of abuses and usurpations" perpetrated by King George III of Great Britain that led to the decision "to throw off such Government."
And thus for 232 years our American pursuit of liberty and the principle of natural rights has served to define and sanctify freedom for the rest of the world.
But today, this cloak of inspirational identity has frayed and become somewhat threadbare.
Writer Catherine Morgan succinctly pointed out that over time, authority has been incrementally forfeited to a favored few and lost to the people. No average American today can say that this is our government, that the people are in charge as the Constitution intended, that America belongs to us.
We now see our government attacking private citizens who dare to publicly oppose current policies. We observe the Washington elites overreach established constitutional limits and routinely abuse power.
It is now common that elected representatives who commit felonies go unpunished, even more common that they knowingly deceive us. We see the Congress award themselves privileges and benefits not available to those they were elected to serve.
We see Members of Congress exempt themselves from the social engineering edicts they pass that confiscate our wealth, whittle away at personal responsibility, and abrogate individual liberty.
We see government's frenzied takings of private property and intruding into the private lives of citizens as never before. We see Congress passing legislation they never read, legislation overwhelmingly opposed by a majority of citizens.
We look on as a bureaucratically-appointed federal judiciary routinely legislates from the bench, with no regard for representation by or the wishes of the people.
We see the professional politicians who comprise elitist Washington enjoying glittering lifestyles far beyond those appropriate for public servants.
We are witnessing the planned, systematic dismemberment of what was the planet's mightiest free-market economic engine. We are witnessing the slow death of economic freedom.
We have allowed this to happen, bit by bit, slice by slice. We are to blame for the statist usurpation of power from the people our Constitutional Republic is mandated to serve.
16 months
This Saturday, July 4, 2009, celebrate our Independence Day as Founder John Adams once proclaimed, "...with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore."
But afterward, reflect upon these words:
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.
Remember these words 16 months from now, on the first Tuesday in November.
Hype and Chains.