Happy Independence Day!

[Lilith Cherry]

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcar...1&source=jl999

Have a great time!

[Karen]

Best with the sound turned on ... marching teddies!

Lilith, I know you are in the land where fireworks were born, will there be any set of tomorrow?

[Marigold2]

How very cute!!!

[Bonny]

The marching Teddy Bears sure are cute. We have played them 5 times already. Grandson really likes them. He is doing a sleep over tonight.

[Lilith Cherry]

Bonnie, glad you enjoyed the teddies - I did too even though I am not American I am looking forward to sleepovers with my grandkids very soon!

Marigold, I loved your card too; Jacquie Lawson is so clever!

Karen, the fireworks won,t be in evidence tomorrow but on October !st (National Day) and Chinese New year they are prolific.

I believe some of the expats are having their own celebration and a BBQ though. We have great weather today .. no rain and 34 celcius!

[Puckstop31]

May God continue to bless this nation.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.



In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

[Lady's Human]

The King shall remain a Tyrant.

[Puckstop31]

I just have to say... I tear up every time I read that last paragraph.

Those 56 blessed souls, nearly to a man, sacrificed everything they had... For their posterity's liberty.

"Our LIVES, our FORTUNES and our SACRED HONOR."


What a shame we are treating it so badly.

[Lady's Human]

I'll be watching 1776 tomorrow.

If anyone wants to watch a decent documentary on the Revolution, the History Channel somehow managed not to screw that one up too badly.

[Puckstop31]

I'll be watching 1776 tomorrow.

If anyone wants to watch a decent documentary on the Revolution, the History Channel somehow managed not to screw that one up too badly.

If it is even close to the book... It will be good.

LOL Army guy addition. Colonel Knox was pretty bad-ass for a fatty. Eh? LOL

[Louie and me]

Happy Independence day to all. Hope you enjoy lots of good company and food.

[chocolatepuppy]

Happy 4th everyone!!!

[Lady's Human]

LOL Army guy addition. Colonel Knox was pretty bad-ass for a fatty. Eh? LOL

In the modern Army he wouldn't get past Pvt for being overweight. How many 30-40% body fat % gunbunies have you seen lately?

[lizbud]

I'll be watching 1776 tomorrow.

If anyone wants to watch a decent documentary on the Revolution, the History Channel somehow managed not to screw that one up too badly.

I watched it all day. History was one of my favorite subjects.

Loved the marching bears. Very cute.

[phesina]

How nice! Thank you, Lilith.

Happy Independence Day, America!