Happy 4th of July
As the descendant of 13 different ancestors who fought in the War for Independence and the son of a decorated World War II battle hero, I have always found a special pleasure in the Fourth of July and will once again proudly fly the Stars and Stripes over my house. But you don’t need to be a member of the Sons or Daughters of the American Revolution to take pride in this most American of holidays. If you believe, as we do at Aerlex, that certain truths are self-evident – that all men and women 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 – then you should welcome this annual opportunity to recall the events of our nation’s founding and honor our national birthday, no matter what your heritage is or how long you or your family have lived in this wonderful country of ours.
John Adams, one of our most celebrated Founding Fathers, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and our second President, once wrote of Independence Day: This “great anniversary festival . . . 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 shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.”
And so it will be for the 239th time on Saturday. Wave the flag, enjoy your hot dogs and hamburgers, soak in the sun and sand at the ocean or the lake, thrill to the fireworks bursting in the nighttime sky above you – but take a moment also to say a silent prayer of thanksgiving for the courageous men and women who challenged the greatest military power of the Eighteenth Century and, against all odds and risking their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, persevered to win independence. They did this in furtherance of an ideal, a dream of liberty and justice and a conviction that it was better to die as free men seeking to govern themselves than to continue living as servants of a faraway, hard-hearted, unjust tyrant. Think on this for at least a few moments on the Fourth of July – and recommit yourself to doing whatever you can do, in your own way, to help make the United States of America a more perfect union.
Happy Independence Day – from all of us at Aerlex Law Group and Aerlex Tax Services.
Stephen Hofer