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The promise that is these United States of America was put to parchment 237 years ago this today. We celebrate our Independence and the establishment of a nation where our unalienable rights emanate from our creator, not man. We celebrate a... nation where our own individual determination and industrialism leads to our prosperity and enables our pursuit of happiness. We celebrate a nation that rejects an onerous invasive and intrusive central government. We celebrate a nation where all men are indeed created equal. However, it is an equality of opportunity that we hold dear in America, not an equality of outcomes.

56 men signed our Declaration of Independence and 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.

They gave you and me a free and independent America. And four score and seven years later from 1-3 July 1863 men fought a great battle at Gettysburg to ensure the document they signed lived up to its intended purpose, "We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal."

Some of us take our freedoms and liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't. So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday, read the entire Declaration of Independence and silently remember and thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid. Freedom is truly never free!

~ former Congressman Allen West ~