We had the best Independence Day ever on Wednesday! This post contains many of the sights and thoughts I had that day. I am not going to take the time to put a caption under each picture. It was such a full day of meaning and beauty.

I’ve always wanted to do something more meaningful on the day then just sit and eat a barbecue dinner and watch fireworks.We do go to the flag raising ceremony that our city puts on in the morning. It is always meaningful with a speaker. I wish I could stretch it out the whole day.

One year we had Stephen Pratt from libertyandlearning.org come. That was such a treat! This year Dr. Mark Baxter spoke about patriotism. He mentioned that our country is in trouble, that the crisis we are facing may reach its peak this year or in ten years.

Some of my kids and their cousins, all dressed in red, by coincidence!

He urged us to prepare for it. I really like those kind of messages instead of the self-congratulatory, braggadocious, “aren’t we awesome American” speeches. I believe in the awesomeness of the America that was founded in 1776, based on the “Hebrew way,” not the America of today that has changed from the Hebrew way to the Roman way. The Hebrew way involves limited government and natural law as set forth in the Bible. The Roman way involves unlimited government  and man-made law, including the belief that government is the answer to all problems.

At the flag-raising service my family walked away with some prizes, as usual. Every year the program involves questions about American history and government. My family is always pleased to know most if not all the answers to the questions, since we love learning about history and government. One of the questions was this, “Which president said the following, “Though the people support the government, it is not the duty of the government to support the people.”?

 

 

I realized with sudden pleasure that I knew the answer! It wasn’t your typical guess of one of the Founding Fathers. I had just read that quote the previous week in the Freeman magazine, which we now get since my son is going to their free economic seminar for high school students next week. The Freeman is the magazine for FEE, the Foundation for Economic Education. The answer is Grover Cleveland. I had read that quote in this article about the little-known president here http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/ideas-and-consequences/cleveland-passed-the-test-of-character-and-statesmanship/

So I got this prize:

and my 14 year old son correctly answered a question so he got this book:

Sweet! Now we have copies of the Mayflower Compact, George Washington’s Farewell Address, the Declaration and Constitution and other great documents all in one place, besides on the Internet, LOL! This book also has annotations and other commentary.

My friend Linda emailed an invitation to a play her kids were in called Cries of Freedom in the Scera Park. We went to it and it was so inspiring! The guy who wrote the Freedom Bowl book from rootsofreedom.org, Scott Swain, was in charge of it.

The play told the story of freedom from Joan of Arc, to the Pilgrims, then the War of 1812 and the emigrants coming to Ellis Island. The music was so stirring! They played Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America” during the Mayflower voyage. I cried a few times during it.

The park also had a colonial village set up with people dressed up in colonial clothes. They had lots of exhibits about the time period. It was so cool! We loved seeing and touching all of the replicas: the guns, the barrels, the toys, the household items.

We got to see a guy work on a lathe. I felt like I was back at Colonial Williamsburg. It was fun to meet one of my Veggie Gal friends and TOLM network member, Jennifer. I haven’t seen her in over four years! What a joyful reunion!

My daughter had fun doing her cousin’s hair into a “fireworks hairstyle.” She’s very talented and creative with hair!

We didn’t have any fireworks at my parents’ house because of the city asking people not to do them with the wildfires going on and dry weather. But that was OK because I had had enough excitement. I can’t wait for next year!