Thanks, America!

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:GAaye.120502$_o.74941@attbi_s71...
Hope all of you across America (and overseas) are having a wonderful
Fourth
of July.



Why can't people call it by it's proper name. which is "Independence Day".

Is being independent so bad anymore?

BTW:

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the
Declaration of Independence? They signed and they pledged their lives,
their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were
farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But they
signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty
would be death if they were captured.

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before
they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons
serving in the Revolutionary Army, another had two sons captured. Nine of
the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships
swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to
pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his
family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his
family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty
was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton,
Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British
General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He
quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was
destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his
wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13
children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to
waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home
to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died
from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar
fates.

Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were
not wild eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means
and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing
tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged:
"For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the
protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other,
our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

They gave you and me a free and independent America. The history books
never told you a lot of what happened in the Revolutionary War.
We didn't just fight the British. We were British subjects at that time and
we fought our own government! Some of us take these liberties so much for
granted...we shouldn't.

Source Unknown