Happy Birthday, USA!

[milwaukeesportsfan]

I just wanted to say everybody have a safe and happy Independence Day. Unfortunately, I'm stuck at work today, but with that being said, I did see something pretty cool this morning. Every crane around the construction of the Marquette Interchange (there are several) sat in silence as I looked out from the roof of our parking structure at work, and on top of almost every single one of them flew an American Flag. I thought that was pretty cool. All in all, I counted over 20 flags flying from buildings, cranes, and anything else you could mount a pole on top of.

 

Well done, Milwaukee.

[Member]

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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 harass 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 benefit 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 neighbouring 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 compleat 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 endeavoured 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.

 

? John Hancock

 

New Hampshire:

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

 

Massachusetts:

John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

 

Rhode Island:

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

 

Connecticut:

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

 

New York:

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

 

New Jersey:

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

 

Pennsylvania:

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

 

Delaware:

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

 

Maryland:

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

 

Virginia:

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

 

North Carolina:

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

 

South Carolina:

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

 

Georgia:

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

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"Just in case you'd forgotten..."

[TheBwaz]

Gonna hijack the thread for a moment to say Happy Birthday to Dad of TheBwaz. All these fireworks just for you.

 

Enjoy the day off if you have it, or try to enjoy the time and a half if you can get it.

[IslandsAC]

I'm going to watch the Patriot today. Man, what a patriotic movie.

[Fatter than Joey]

Happy 4th to every here --

 

Be safe, don't hurt yourself with fireworks -- unless you are videotaping it, in which case get it to youtube ASAP.

 

Best!

[pitchleague]

Happy Birthday America!

 

So today's agenda is this:

 

--Patriotic Music playing on the stereo all day

 

--Brewer game interrupts Patriotic music for a few hours

 

--slow cook some ribs on the grill

 

--listen to Boston Pops concert on the internet (darn thing isn't broadcast in it's entirety like it used to be. I'm sure I'm in the minority on this one, but my wife and I loved the concert--even the classical stuff. One goal in life is to be in Boston for the concert and fireworks)

 

--watch what little of the Boston Pops concert and fireworks they do show on CBS

 

--get the ladder out and climb up on the roof around 9:00 pm to watch fireworks in our town. Last year's were cancelled so this year they have double the fireworks. Should be pretty good.

 

--Find something Patriotic to watch on TV (The Patriot, Independence Day, something . . .)

 

--Oh, yeah. Drink alot of beer. But not so much that I can't get up on the roof. Oh, and stay out of the sun. Supposed to be about 116 here today. Oof.

 

EDIT: I've decided to grill some hot dogs for lunch and push the ribs back to dinner, in honor of a great American victory today.

[EAsports28]

This isn't quite the Declaration of Independence, but someone mentioned watching the Patriot today, and yesterday I watched another patriotic candidate...name the movie!

 

"Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. "Mankind." That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight!" We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!"

[Crowd cheers]

 

 

Gave me chills just writing that...

[PKBadger]

I'm voting Bill Pullman in '08.

[milwaukeesportsfan]

My agenda:

 

1530 hours: Leave work.

 

1545 hours: Stop at local Pick and Save to purchase adult beverages.

 

1600 - 1800 hours: Consume said beverages in celebration of our Indepence, all the while cursing the Chinese Communist Regime.

 

1830 hours: Eat grilled meat of some sort.

 

1900 - 2100 hours: Consume more beverages, this time in celebration of not having to work tomorrow.

 

2105 - 2145 hours: Grab more beverages and walk to Summerfest. It's about a two beer walk.

 

2200 - 2345 hours: Watch the Black Crowes.

 

0000 hours: Walk to nearby tavern or bar.

 

0200 hours: Close down bar.

 

0230 hours: Stumble home.

 

0300 hours: Order Jimmy John's.

 

0305 hours: Call Jimmy John's to find out why my food hasn't arrived yet.

 

0315 hours: Eat.

 

0330 hours: Pass out watching rerun of Baseball Tonight.

 

Edit: Still haven't quite gotten Military time figured out.

[IslandsAC]

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2105 - 2145 hours: Grab more beverages and walk to Summerfest. It's about a two beer walk.

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Ahh, the quintessential American Dreamhttp://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

And nice work on the Pullman speech, EA, almost brought a tear to my eye.

[Getpaddled]

PLEASE be safe, I have had someone die on me 3 stright 4th of julys... Im starting to NOT look foward to this day because of that. Have fun, but agian please be safe.

 

go USA go

[Sepolevne]

Button Gwinett...still the best name ever in American poltics.

 

Happy 231st America, you don't look a year over 220!

[hawing]

Button Gwinnett. Ohhh, yeah.

 

At my workplace (Wisconsin Historical Society), we have a collection of autographs of signers of the Declaration of Independence, including Mr. Gwinnett. His is among the rarest of autographs because he died in a duel within a year of signing the declaration.

 

Link to Wikipedia entry

 

If any of you saw the D of I when it was displayed in Wisconsin (State Capitol, 2003), we had some of the autographs on display there too, including Gwinnett's. We all wore Button Gwinnett buttons. It was kind of fun.

[jaybird2001wi]

Jimmy Johns is open at 3am?

[Viva La Grinch]

I am actually a descendant of Roger Sherman who signed for Connecticut. By the way, also related to General Sherman too. I just remember as a kid, being told we could be buried in some special cemetery and thinking that would be so cool.

[milwaukeesportsfan]

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Jimmy Johns is open at 3am?

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I'm pretty sure they're open until 3 am on weekends.