Saturday, July 3, 2010

Let Freedom Ring

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom,
must undergo the fatigues of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 4, September 11, 1777
(above picture: my sweetheart treating Iraqi civilian patients)

"It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Games, Sports, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory.
I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means.
And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction."
- Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams,
referring to the day the Declaration of Independence was signed

"Courage, then, my countrymen, our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty."
-Samuel Adams, August, 1776
(above picture taken by my husband, while serving in Iraq)

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians. Not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here."
- Patrick Henry