{"id":1178,"date":"2011-12-24T18:08:43","date_gmt":"2011-12-25T01:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=1178"},"modified":"2012-05-15T19:43:09","modified_gmt":"2012-05-16T02:43:09","slug":"declaration-and-resolve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=1178","title":{"rendered":"Declaration and Resolve"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/a>As we celebrate the Fourth
\n of July today, joining in the
\n “Happy 197th Anniversary!”
\n atmosphere of the Freedom
\n Festival here in Provo, all of
\n us would do well to give some
\n thoughtful consideration to
\n perpetuating the firmness of
\n resolve that accompanied the
\n signing of the Delcaration of
\n Independence in 1776.
\n Suppose the drafters of the
\n Declaration had neglected to
\n add this paragraph to their
\n document:
\n “And for the support of this
\n Declaration, with a firm
\n reliance on the protection of
\n Divine Providence, we
\n mutually pledge to each other
\n our Lives, our Fortunes, and
\n our Sacred Honor.”
\n Without such a resolve – in
\n the Declaration but more
\n importantly in the minds and
\n hearts of the men and women
\n whose cherished .goal was
\n freedom – it is doubtful if an
\n effective revolution could
\n have been carried out.
\n But, of course, the delegates
\n to the Continental Congress of
\n 1776 added that final
\n paragraph, stuck their necks
\n under the shadow of King
\n George’s hangman, and set to
\n work to make their fine vision
\n an accomplished fact.
\n Nearly two centuries have
\n passed since that hot summer
\n day in Philadelphia. That
\n historic bit of parchment,
\n faded and scarred, is still a
\n part of mid-twentieth century
\n America. Sometimes,
\n however, we seem to act as
\n though we would like to forget
\n about the acts and deeds of the
\n men which gave meaning to
\n the Delcaration.
\n Too often we have a
\n tendency to assume that once
\n we have made the right sort of
\n speeches and passed the
\n proper kind of resolutions,
\n nothing more needs to be done.
\n A few examples: Within the
\n last few years, Americans
\n innumerable have voiced
\n ringing declarations about the
\n irony of permitting poverty to
\n exist in a land of unrivaled
\n plenty; about the need to wipe
\n out city slums; about the folly
\n of allowing Americans to kill
\n themselves on the highways;
\n about the necessity to
\n preserve our natural environ-
\n ment; about the unalienable
\n right of all people to freedom,
\n justice, and opportunity.
\n But are we doing enough to
\n translate these declarations
\n into fact? We have talked and
\n resolved and deplored and
\n condemned – and the targets
\n of our resolving and
\n condemning still loom large
\n and frightening.
\n We could take a hint from
\n the men of 1776. They spoke
\n their minds about the iniquity
\n of tyranny – and then, with
\n their own hands, and with
\n forthrightness and courage –
\n they went out and delivered
\n themselves from it.
\n So They Say
\n The United States is being
\n defeated all over the world but
\n has not been taught the final
\n lesson. We tell America in a
\n loud voice that it needs a
\n severe blow in the face from
\n the Arabs.
\n -Libyan strongman
\n Col. Moammar Khadafy,
\n . announcing the
\n nationalization of an
\n American oil company.
\n Let me tell you something
\n that we Israelis have against
\n Moses. He took us 40 years
\n through the desert in order to
\n bring us to the one spot in the
\n Middle East that has no oil.
\n -Premier Golda Meir.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we celebrate the Fourth of July today, joining in the “Happy 197th Anniversary!” atmosphere of the Freedom Festival here in Provo, all of us would do well to give some thoughtful consideration to perpetuating the firmness of resolve that accompanied the signing of the Delcaration of Independence in 1776. Suppose the drafters of the… Continue reading Declaration and Resolve<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}