Independence Day (2009)

Visiting the country of Ivory Coast, its capital Abidjan, my guide and I were walking on the beach early on a beautiful morning. A young, personable, handsome black man came up to us and wanted to make our acquaintance because he recognized us being tourists. As is so often the case, they want to exercise their language. He spoke very good English and was very excited that a blind man would be visiting his country, particularly a blind man who knew something of history and could talk with him about American history. He made a statement which I have been trying to answer and perhaps I will be able to answer before my demise. He said, “In President George Washington's farewell address, in the last sentence he said, 'America will cease to be great if America loses its religion and morality.'” He said, “From the American movies I see, from the American publications I read, it seems to me that America has lost most of its religion, which is the basis of its morality.”

The celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was used as a day of celebration almost from the beginning with cannon firings in 1777 and even a double serving of rum by General Washington to his troops. President Washington, served this nation for 45 years as a general and as its first president. He was without dispute, the wealthiest man in America and probably the wealthiest president ever, but he once said, “I had rather be on my farm, than be emperor of the world.” Most presidents have been men of great character and tremendous wealth. Even though the third president, Thomas Jefferson, used the famous “Jefferson Bible” which he had cut out many things with which he did not agree, he still said, “I tremble about the thought of God's justice.”

The debate concerning the separation of Church and State, attributed to a letter sent by Jefferson to a Baptist group, centers only in the definite desire that this country never have a State Church, which our forefathers had escaped in England. Why bring back to the anvil time and time again things that have already been hammered? In patriotism, as in Christian giving, we can give without loving, but we can not love without giving. Our giving of our wealth to the church (God loves a cheerful giver) is the same as our willingness to support our government by our taxes, our talent, and even our lives.

Andrew Jackson, our seventh president said, “The Bible is the rock on which America rests.” It is significant that 39 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were Seminary graduates. President Truman was probably the last president of character and very much unlike the others; poor before the presidency and poor after the presidency. It is reported that he borrowed money to move back to Missouri from Washington and then had to sell his farm at Grand View, Missouri in order to live until the congress under Lyndon Johnson finally gave a $25,000 a year retirement to ex-presidents. Until then, the next president received no compensation at all and no secret service.

Truman, was a man of character which ALWAYS determines destiny. The diamond sets the standard for hardness. Truman, a Veteran of combat in WWI, like so many of my family, set the standard which I have tried to follow. Only love for God, Family and Country is the test for those who are willing to guard it. President Truman and his wife made a trip to the east for a speaking engagement in Philadelphia and he drove his car and they stayed at a hotel in New York without charge. I have said this, to point out, that there was a time when Americans, even presidents, served this nation for the patriotic duty and love of country and service. When Alexis de Tocqueville came to America from France in 1831 and traveled until 1835 returning to France to write his book Democracy in America he had many good things to say about this young, democratic republic. One thing we should never forget, he said, “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Abraham Lincoln, our sixteenth president, and perhaps in most respects, our greatest president, once said, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.” This totally blind 100% disabled, service-connected, medical officer veteran can stipulate without apology, we have been a blessed nation, but God will judge us for accepting the perversions of homosexuality, pornography and abortion. We can be sure that God will judge this nation as a whole, we will all suffer because of the sins of many, but rejoice in the consolation that sins of the individual are judged for eternity.

Study the news, an arch is only as strong as the individual stones that support it. The supporting stones are being removed because of corruption and infidelity. Like putting holes into a ship, slowly the ship will sink. Before the Titanic left its berth in England, where it had been constructed, its engineer said, “Nothing will sink this ship.” On its maiden voyage, the ship is on the bottom of the ocean. We had thought we were too great to fail, many are changing their mind.

On this July fourth, as every July fourth, we honor the estimated 5 million Americans who have died defending this county. 126,000 Americans lie buried on foreign soil. I was at the 25th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion where 9,700 are buried and I have stood in that great military cemetery in the Philippines where nearly 18,000 are buried or Arlington where 256,000 are buried, including many of my relatives. You do not realize the sacrifice until you see all those white crosses in those cemeteries.

My mother never stopped talking about my grandfather's brother. Just a small time country boy reared in the same house in which my mother was born and raised, who rose in the Army to military officer's rank and served with President Theodore Roosevelt, as one of his assistants, in the Spanish-American War. He died soon after his return home. Though the Army spent little on officer's funerals at that time, he was brought to the country church which my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents had all attended, and my mother talked incessantly about the number of horses and buggies lined up and down the roads, the crowds, the guns firing to honor this one young man whose body was then put on a train and taken to Arlington. God, family, country was important to our ancestors.

The world's largest mass migration to the North American shores, a DESTINY from the religious tyranny and excessive taxation of Europe, was a Godsend to our founding forefathers who only wanted opportunity. They had risked everything in the revolution promise by freedom. One of my forebearers, Dr. Daniel Wiles of Northamptonshire, England, who arrived on the Good Ship Heist in 1677 and his first wife Elizabeth were the parents of my great, great, grandfather who later migrated to eastern North Carolina. (Attached, charcoal portraits of this great-grandfather and his wife) Until my parents died, they talked of two things which battered and thrilled their lives more than anything else. One, Hurricane Hazel which hit the coast in 1954 while I was away in the military; and the other, the annual Independence Day picnic which centered at the three-room school which both of my parents attended. This was the largest social occasion of the year for these country folks.

One of my uncles would take a wagon and team of mules to a nearby town, 10 miles away, and buy large blocks of ice which was used at the picnic for iced tea, milkshakes and even homemade ice cream. This was the only time in the entire year that these people had ice. There was a large athletic field behind the school, and there were ball games all day. The women of the community, under the great shade trees prepared large picnics as well as keeping up with all the family activities of the year. Often, the men were entertained by county and state politicians who would come making speeches and seeking votes.

The Independence Day picnic in this isolated country community was a time when even practices of segregation were forgotten. Various denominations (Baptist, Quaker, AME) and even those of different skin color would all come together for this celebration of patriotism. I can still remember, as a child, the divider down the middle of the church when the women would sit on one side, the men on the other and, each church, had a balcony in which the blacks would sit. Other than the Independence Day picnic, the only time all sat together was at a funeral. Perhaps from this we can learn much about church state relationships and how people can come together in times of sorrow as well as times of celebration.

In the Old Testament, as the shackled Joseph, sold to the Ishmaelites, on his way to Egypt, could look toward Hebron and see the lights of the city which was near his father Jacob's home. Many of us, have known the price of freedom. How well I remember, imagining the croaking of the frogs which always sang a symphony in the great cow pasture, the home where I was reared. In far away places, then, as all over the world, (I have traveled through 157 countries and been around the world 8 times) the lasting sounds and sights that mean most and that I still carry with me are my father's beautiful cows in the pasture, the sound of my father singing each morning as he did his chores around the farm before my mother got us up for breakfast, the always present Collie dogs barking as they thrilled to a new day. The price was paid by uncles, who had never been away from home, militarily sent to the far corners of the world, where they were so homesick and, on this Independence Day, think of the thousands who died thinking of home. I never knew one wounded, in a military hospital, who did not talk about home and mother. THIS IS THE PRICE OF FREEDOM.

The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
your love, O LORD, endures forever—
do not abandon the works of your hands.
Psalm 138:8

Please, dear God, do not abandon those who believe in your mercy.

Independence Day 2010

My father was born on Independence Day 1910, if he were living today, he would be 100 years of age. We never celebrated his birthday, we were all too busy working, middle of summer, crops in the fields, gathering and gardening, too many responsibilities, schooling for children in the fall and college in the future, the needs of the church, putting something away for old age.

As far as I know, even though I know they paid their social security taxes including the excessive taxes on the farm land, neither of my parents ever collected a social security check. My mother died at 62, two weeks before she would have received her first check and two weeks after her last child had graduated from college. Besides, Senator Bailey had told my father that there was no money in the social security trust fund, just a big IOU. Both believed that Christians taking anti-Christian money caused an anti-Christian country.

My father had too much pride in his family ancestors, his work ethic, to ever take anything from the government. It was a matter of integrity, two of my ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence, Robert and Lewis Morris, founding Morristown, New Jersey, that side of the family moved north, my side moved south to North Carolina. Robert Morris wrote the preamble to the Declaration of Independence and later served as an ambassador to France. During then fighting there, he saw naked mens bodies dragged through the streets of Paris. He wrote of the uncivilized acts of man, man's inhumanity to man, such as in Mogadishu, Somalia (American soldiers pulled through the streets of this war-torn city, see the movie Black Hawk Down).

Every time I pass the home place of Dr. William Hooper of this city, I think of what he risked to sign the Declaration, the beautiful view from his home of the Atlantic ocean. All 56 signers having risked life, wealth and sacred honor. Lewis Morris lost everything and died in prison.

The oldest signer of the declaration, or at least the longest-living was Charles Carroll who died at 95. He was a lawyer, but was never allowed to practice law in this country because he was Roman Catholic. In spite of the inequities, then as now, they knew, and we should know, that as Dr. Franklin said, “Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

Three things my parents, grandparents, old people in our large farming community talked about their entire lives, and until they died, the Great Depression, Hurricane Hazel of 1954 (I was away in the military at that time), and the Fourth of July picnic. Across from the great home where my mother, her father before her, and his father before him were born and raised was a large, 4-room schoolhouse where my grandfather's sister, Aunt Cattie was the school teacher. Every fourth of July, the entire community would get together at the school for a big picnic. There was a large ball-field at the rear of the school building where they played ball all day. Under the trees in the front of the school, this building this setting is still there to this day, they put up tables for the meal of the year. My great uncle, who had never married, slept every night of his life in the house in which he was born, drove a team of mules into the nearest town and brought back a very expensive block of ice. This at a time when electricity was unknown ,was the only ice these people had all year. (Before electricity, ships would go to the Arctic and bring back loads of ice, the ice was stored in thick buildings, once such building is here on the river, just a block from my house. Wealthy families in the community had a refrigerated “icebox”. After electricity, ice was made from ice factories, by freezing water) He would shave the ice, for iced tea, milkshakes, and hand-churned ice cream.

Often, a politician would come by and make a speech, choirs from the local churches would sing. Everyone came, regardless of skin color, rich/poor, young/old, this is where many romances started. Each family had it's own flag which they brought to the picnic.

Now, there was segregation, discrimination, inequity, but these people, several denominations, separate schools, came together on such occasions, it was the same in the church. I still remember the divider which came down the center of the church building. The women sat on the left side of the divider, the men on the right side, the black people who worked on the farms, sat on the balcony. After couples reached a certain age, there was one section next to the pulpit, the “amen corner” where these old couples sat. The only service were men and women sat together, along with the blacks, was a funeral. They all came together at a time of sorrow, and they all came together at a time of joy.

They came together during the great flu epidemic of 1918 because they had to care for one another, the living had to bury the dead. The country doctor, Dr. Hayes, came with his buggy to care for them until he died of the flu, then they were on their own. People outside the community did not come into the community, because they could not afford to take the “bugs” back to their family and friends. Aunt Cattie died, along with several of her sisters, my mother's youngest brother died. This was the hard life of our ancestors, independent, hard-working, god-fearing, taking on the responsibilities of life, they knew what later generations have forgotten.

Next to creation by God alone, is the procreation of individuals, a man and woman coming together to produce one made in the image of God...completely different from any other individual who has ever lived. Even with identical twins, same DNA, there are different fingerprints, different flex in the iris of the eye, different voice patterns. God's chief creation, given with his freedom, ours to defend and enjoy (John 8:32-36).

Abraham Lincoln's Independence Day Address (July 4, 1963)

Fellow-citizens: I am very glad to see you to-night. But yet I will not say I thank you for this call. But I do most sincerely thank Almighty God for the occasion on which you have called.

How long ago is it? Eighty odd years since, upon the Fourth day of July, for the first time in the world, a union body of representatives was assembled to declare as a self-evident truth that all men were created equal. That was the birthday of the United States of America. Since then the fourth day of July has had several very peculiar recognitions.

The two most distinguished men who framed and supported that paper, including the particular declaration I have mentioned, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the one having framed it, and the other sustained it most ably in debate, the only two of the fifty-five or fifty-six who signed it, I believe, who were ever President of the United States, precisely fifty years after they put their hands to that paper it pleased the Almighty God to take away from this stage of action on the Fourth of July.

This extraordinary coincidence we can understand to be a dispensation of the Almighty Ruler of Events. Another of our Presidents, five years afterwards, was called from this stage of existence on the same day of the month, and now on this Fourth of July just past, when a gigantic rebellion has risen in the land, precisely at the bottom of which is an effort to overthrow that principle “that all men are created equal,” we have a surrender of one of their most powerful positions and powerful armies forced upon them on that very day.

And I see in the succession of battles in Pennsylvania, which continued three days, so rapidly following each other as to be justly called one great battle, fought on the first, second and third of July; on the fourth the enemies of the declaration that all men are created equal had to turn tail and run.  Gentlemen, this is a glorious theme and a glorious occasion for a speech, but I am not prepared to make one worthy of the theme and worthy of the occasion.

I would like to speak in all praise that is due to the many brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the cause of the Union and liberties of this country from the beginning of this war, not on occasions of success, but upon the more trying occasions of the want of success. I say I would like to speak in praise of these men, particularizing their deeds, but I am unprepared. I should dislike to mention the name of a single officer, lest in doing so I wrong some other one whose name may not occur to me.

Recent events bring up certain names, gallantly prominent, but I do not want to particularly name them at the expense of others, who are as justly entitled to our gratitude as they. I therefore do not upon this occasion name a single man. And now I have said about as much as I ought to say in this impromptu manner, and if you please, I’ll take the music.