AS I SEE IT
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
As Americans across the country get ready to celebrate July 4th or more importantly this country’s Independence Day, it behooves all of us to remember why we celebrate this day. It is more than just another paid day away from work so that we can head to the lake or some other popular recreation area. And it is more than watching parades and shooting off fireworks.
The Fourth of July is the birth of the United States. It was the day back in 1776 when our forefathers and the framers of this nation’s Constitution decided that it was only fitting that we as Americans should celebrate our freedom from England. And as John Adams, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence wrote to his wife, “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 shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.”