On September 17th, 1787 on the last day of the Constitutional Convention being held in Philadelphia, 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin, in excruciating pain from kidney stones and gout, participated in a moment like no other in American history as he and our other Founding Fathers affixed their names to our Constitution, written as a guide for the form of government which they had fought so hard to give birth to through revolution and hard work, a cause which they had pledged their fortunes and sacred honor to.

On this American holiday upon which we celebrate our independence as a Sovereign Nation, born and maintained by the sweat and blood of courageous Americans, men and women who loved this country, it’s time to reflect on where we are, how we got here, and where we’re headed.

On November 19th, 1863, on the site of the bloody Battle of Gettysburg, a tired and worn out President Abraham Lincoln gave a monumental address in which he stated that

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.“

That word “Liberty” is an often misunderstood and complex word.

Yes, it means that as Americans, you have the individual freedom to make decisions for you and your family.

However, Liberty comes with responsibility. It comes with a responsibility to provide for your family, to love and cherish not only your family and your friends and Neighbors, but also to love and cherish America, a sacred land provided for us by Our Creator.

Americans love their individual freedom. However, a lot of American citizens tend to forget the responsibilities that come with it.

After the actions Americans have witnessed by those who wish to change America into something that those who sacrificed their lives, fortune, and sacred honor to bequeath to us, it is time to reclaim the “The Shining City Upon the Hill” that they gave us.

I am not advocating reclaiming our American Heritage through violence, anarchy, and mob rule “democracy” as we’ve been witnessing the past several years by those who wish to radically change America.

I am talking about using the tools found in the wondrous document that our Founders signed that day in Philadelphia at the Constitutional Convention.

What we have witnessed the last several days as those who we elected to serve us have bickered back and forth over President Donald J Trump’s Big Beautiful bill, finally voting it into law for the president’s signature, is how our government was created to work.

Those who have been paying for and participating in these AstroTurf protests proclaiming “No More Kings!”, have no clue as to what living under an actual totalitarian government would be like.

Our Founders did.

“As the last names were being signed, Franklin, in a personal aside to some other members, made an observation about the chair that Washington had been sitting in as he presided over the Convention. The chair had an emblem of half of a sun. Franklin noted that artists often have a hard time distinguishing between a rising and a setting sun in their artwork. “I have often and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting: but now at length, I have the happiness to know, that it is a rising and not a setting sun.” (Courtesy nps.gov)

As Dr. Franklin was leaving the signing of our Constitution, a woman named Elizabeth Willing Powell asked him,

“Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”

Franklin replied,

“A republic, if you can keep it.”

In order for the sun to continue shining upon our Constitutional Republic, we have to embrace the responsibilities of Liberty in order to hold on to this Sacred Land given to us by our Creator.

A Charge to Keep We Have.

Until He Comes,

KJ