THE 4TH OF JULY

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they 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 weer captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. the home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. it's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Remember: Freedom is never free!

I hope you will show your support by sending this to as many people as you can, please. It's time we get the word out that patriotism is NOT a sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer, picnics, and baseball games.

oh boy, do i have stuff to talk about

with the so-called "redemption" of US basketball, michael phelps beastly domination in swimming, shawn johnson's gymnastics, and a stolen arrangement of the star-spangled banner, just to name a few things, the games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing come to a close. This is just the opening topic of this weekends blog.

starting off with the first us men's basketball team not to be called the "dream team" since i've been alive...the "redeem team," as they are called this year, dominated spain in the gold medal game last night (us time). now we get to go back to calling them the "dream team" again...and i expect "dream team V" to medal, probably, as the rest of the country thinks, win it all, again in 2012.

next up, 12,000 calorie phelps. not only are his eating habits ridiculous, it helped him win a ridiculous 8 gold medals this summer, going 8 for the 8 events he participated in, setting at least 6 world records on his amazing run. now, next year, someone, probably phelps himself, will break all those records in different competitions, but it was a very dominating summer that he enjoyed. my 2012 outlook for michael phelps: look for him to not only win 9 golds in swimming, but also to win the triathlon and several other events (maybe even ping-pong)...beast.

i don't normally watch gymnastics, but i still like to know what's going on. so when i heard about paul hamm, and then his brother, i wasn't expecting much from men's gymnastics. then i saw that they got bronze for the team gymnastics...that was pretty cool. can't remember if any of them medaled in all-around, but i seem to think at least one guy did. women's gymnasts, on the other hand, were out of this world for the US. the team just barely missed the gold, and then got gold and silver in all-around. then shawn johnson later in the week got another gold medal. in 2016, there will apparently be a member of the men's gymnast squad by the name of jacob hamilton...if he makes it, i'll be proud of my schoolmate, and i hope elf the best, even if we have to agree to disagree about notre dame.

so, apparently in the tennessean, there was an article describing how the rendition of the star-spangled banner used at most of the olympic medal ceremonies was a direct copy of an arrangement by a certain american composer/arranger. the exact name escapes me, but he argues that the chinese used it without his permission, or acknowledgement, or any of the normal stuff. so there's that story for you.

all in all, this year's olympics were very good. i'd give them, in david slate terms, four and a quarter out of five footballs.

i'll cover the nfl and mlb in my next blog, and maybe some of how my life's been recently...