As the 4th of July once again comes up on the calendar, it is with sadness that I am forced to consider whether it’s even worth celebrating Independence Day anymore.  After all, Independence Day celebrated our break from Great Britain.  We cast off the shackles of tyranny, and inaugurated a new nation conceived in liberty.  In a letter to his wife Abigail, John Adams predicted that Independence Day would go down in history as the “Day of Deliverance.”  Adams wrote that succeeding generations would celebrate the day as the great anniversary festival which would be commemorated by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty.  The day would be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shows, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.  Today we still have parades, but we have them only to give LGBT people someplace to march.  Sports?  No.  Sports only cause injuries, and we mustn’t take chances.  Guns?  Are you kidding?  Bells disturb the peace.  Bonfires violate EPA regulations.  In Florida, illumination is illegal because it disturbs the turtles.  And, of course, we’re not even allowed to mention God in a public setting.  Independence means autonomy, freedom from the control of or by others.  Such things no longer exist.  Maybe we’ve had things too good and too easy.  We’ve forgotten where we came from and how we obtained the freedoms we have enjoyed.  And because evil forces discredit and undermine the source of our liberty, we are in peril of losing those freedoms we long have cherished, and which once made America the envy of the world.  In 1787, the States created the federal government.  Since then, slowly but surely, the federal government has expanded its authority to the point where it has rendered the States nearly impotent and now dominates every aspect of our lives.  In order to do this, the federal Leviathan had to discard the principles that impelled us to our independence.  The insatiable beast is unconcerned.  The Declaration of Independence declares that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.  Thomas Jefferson wrote, “God who gave us life gave us liberty.”  The point is that our rights come from God, not from any government.  John Hancock considered resistance to tyranny to be “the Christian and social duty of each individual.”  That’s why the government must discourage religious faith in order to steal our freedom.  All religions except, apparently Islam, currently are scorned.  By destroying God, and particularly Christianity, a tyrannical government destroys liberty and removes resistance to its tyranny.  Benjamin Franklin cautioned us that “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  We constantly are being told that we must sacrifice our liberty in the name of safety. The recent move to cancel the 2nd Amendment is a perfect example.  In this, we are advised to give up essential liberty without getting even temporary safety.  President Eisenhower said it best, “If you want total security, go to prison.  There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on.  The only thing lacking … is freedom.”  The problem is that far too many of us are willing to choose the prison rather than the freedom.  Independence is one of those outdated 18th Century notions that we are simply too evolved to recognize, let alone celebrate.  Thomas Paine warned that “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”  People no longer yearn to breath free.  Yearning for freedom is hard work.  We might yearn for a latte, but that’s about it.  We’re spoiled. Viktor Frankl, an Austrian physician who survived the Holocaust, like Thomas Paine, understood that freedom is not free. Frankl recommended that New York’s Statue of Liberty be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the west coast. Responsibility goes hand in hand with liberty, but we can’t be responsible for ourselves.  We’re content to let the government provide.  That’s why the 4th of July shouldn’t be celebrated as Independence Day anymore.  Instead, we should mourn the 4th as Dependence Day.  We’ll top our tofu burgers with government cheese.  We’ll exchange our liberty for servitude, and we’ll achieve equality; we’ll all be equally miserable and destitute.  Ronald Reagan warned that “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream.  It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”  We have squandered the last generation by pursuing a socialist Utopia which has never and will never exist.  Our freedom hangs in the balance.  Unhappy Dependence Day.