The Star-Spangled day of hamburgers, hot-dogs and apple pie is officially upon us.

Fireworks started exploding last night and the dogs are freaking out.  People are smiling, yet, only a few homes on the streets of my neighborhood fly American flags.  And, those with smiles seem distant . . . like smiles of memory, not the present.

There are fewer flags in the yards of the people . . .

Other flags fly from businesses & corporations . . .

Where is the red, white and blue of years past trumpeting from the markets, street corners and parks this year? Something changed. 

What does the Fourth-of-July really mean, today, in grownup land?

I’ve no longer heard people talk of our “Independence.”  In the grocery store, the gas station, even at church, I heard nothing of gratitude for our nation’s sovereignty. Though we sang the Star Spangled Banner today in our worship meetings, the underlying understanding of the holiday seems lost in conversation.

This “free” country has been slowly covered with a dark multicolored mold that has crept into every corner, under every crack, upon every walk way, and buried in the crevices of our society.

“Your health is more important than your freedom,” they say.  “You’re a bigot if your neighbor’s feelings are more important than your freedom, don’t you think?”

The pen of every lawmaker seems to have usurped some “freedom for your own safety” over the last year.

Every government circumvention . . .

Every bail-out . . .

Every stimulus . . .

Every theory . . .

Every ruling . . .

“Your freedom will return when you get the vaccine,” they say.

“You can have a few friends over on the Fourth of July for a hot-dog if you are obedient,” we were told.

Yes.  Schools, churches and gyms are now open . . . open only on conformity to the pen – with limits.  

“This is for the public good . . .” they say.

“It is too difficult for you think about this yourself . . .” they say.

“Those words are scarry and too extreme . . .” they say.

Yet the mold is thicker, darker, deeper, with a despotic stench of repression . . . maybe people are still wearing a mask to avoid the mold?

You can have your liberty back when you are “inoculated,” they promise.

And yet, isn’t this the exact reason a Declaration was penned 245 years ago? 

“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.”

The populace has been conditioned.  The populace is now compliant.  How does tyranny taste?  Are we soft enough for another dose?

This is nothing more than a closed-door measurement of your backbone, a measurement of my spine.

Or, has resolve been hardened?  Is the sleeping giant of a still-free, sovereign people awakened or sedated?

They still see the “great unwashed” in need of a corral . . .

Yet, I see my compatriots.  I see my brothers and sisters, waking from a deep sleep. . . perhaps for the first time seeing how easily freedom and liberty can be lost, taken, or stolen.

All the blessings of this great nation are enjoyed under the rule of law. The rule of law comes from our Constitution, born out of that Declaration of Independence. Our allegiance runs to the Constitution and to the principles which it embodies, not to individuals or specific elected officials. The rule of law us the basis of our liberty, and provides continued independence.

I cannot shake the feeling that we stand in danger of losing our liberties, and that once lost, only blood will bring them back. Once lost we will have more sacrifices to make and persecution to endure than we have yet known in coming to this point in our Nation’s history.

To all with a discerning eye, the democratic republic formed by our forefathers cannot long endure once fundamental principles are abandoned. Momentum for another conflict – repeating the crisis 245 years ago – is building speed. The collision of ideas is now worldwide – will men be free to determine their own course of action or must they be coerced?

Let us resolve today under the bright stars and the stripes that will never run:

• There shall be no slow frog-boil today on this soil
• There shall be no toe-hold for tyranny, no matter how sweet the promise of safety or familiarity may be
• Any over-reach and “bureaucratic help” is too expensive at the price of freedom and liberty.
• We will prevail as a free people . . . no matter the cost, come what may.

To your freedom, your independence and a wonderful 2021!

Adam Nally, D.O. (AKA – @DocMuscles)