Meaning of the Fourth, by David Keck guest blogger

“As we celebrate "The Fourth of July," let us remember that here, in the United States, it is just the fourth day in a summer month except that it is Independence Day. After all, Senegal has a fourth of July; but it is not their Independence Day. As we picnic and firework, let us remember those men who publicly put their names on this document that immediately with a signature branded them as traitors and made them marked men. And all of them had much to lose financially, and many did, as a result of of their public pronouncement and commitment. When our Constitution went into effect 13 years later, we are the only country in the world with an elected head of state. Sad as the world is now, how many dozens of countries have elected heads of state, all because those men, and those at home and in the field, who took a chance when it was not at all a sure thing, winning the peace and the right to pursue a republican form of government. The United States, with all its faults (which country criticizing us is without them?), has from the start, even before the Declaration, been that "Shining City on the Hill." We didn't get that way being like everyone else.”