What does the Fourth of July mean to you today?

To children it is a time to shoot off fireworks and watch the huge displays across this land. To many families it is a day off work to be spent with friends at backyard barbecues or a long weekend at the lake.

But to a group of courageous citizens in 1776, it meant survival of the very freedoms their forefathers braved the ocean to cross. They remembered the hardships of making a future for themselves and their families. They had started farms and businesses, contributing to the economic growth of all those around them.

Have you ever considered the 56 signers of The Declaration of Independence?

They were farmers, doctors, businessmen, ministers, sailors and teachers. They saw that what they had worked so hard for was being chipped away by an all-consuming government whose appetite could never be satisfied. Everything they had worked for could eventually be taken away. They had had enough and felt no other course but to declare independence.

“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.”

“…Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor,” Those words meant something in 1776.

I am not so sure that a pledge from someone today making the same statement would carry as much weight as that one did. Where have we gone wrong?

As a country we have looked too long in the mirror of our own reflection so that we can’t see how a single individual’s contribution can make a difference. We are so wrapped up in gaining a fortune that we don’t care what we have to do to attain that wealth. Fifty-six individuals signed their names to a document and then pledged everything they had.

Did they have a guarantee of a successful outcome? No, but they were convinced it was worth the risk.

The liberties that we enjoy come with the responsibility to pass on the fire of patriotism to the next generation. When we become lazy and think someone else will step up and tackle the problems our country faces, we are doomed to fail.

Can these United States become the chain that attempts to snuff out the light of liberty? It can, if we let it.

Could our livelihoods be altered by a government with such out-of-control spending that it must take from our futures? It will, if we don’t speak out.

Fifty-six men sparked a revolution that set others free. They were men of vision and conviction. They had sacred honor that was worth fighting and dying for.

Where are the visionaries of today? Are they too busy looking at their own reflection to notice the situation around them? We need leaders with conviction of heart to make decisions not because they are easy, but because they are right.