Let me retract my comment's, Radar. Your opinions seem reasonable upon further examination. I've got to throw this drink out. Work is just 34 plus hours away. Oy.

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 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 were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships destroyed 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 Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over Nelson’s 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 destroyed, wife jailed and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his dying wife's bedside as were their 13 children.
His fields and gristmill laid to waste, 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!

Please, get the word out that patriotism is NOT a sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer, picnics, the beach and baseball games.

I joined the throngs on the National Mall at about 7:30. Somehow I managed to find my group up near the Washington Monument.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/23757685/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos18.flickr.com/23757685_d2f9635413.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Crowds" /></a>

Here's the view from our spot of the World War II Memorial, the Reflecting Pool, and the Lincoln Memorial.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/23758056/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos18.flickr.com/23758056_144a08f663.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Crowds" /></a>

When it got dark, I got another shot of the Washington Monument.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/23758374/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos18.flickr.com/23758374_f882408441.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Obelisk" /></a>

And the base. The blur wasn't intentional, but I think it sorta works.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/23758791/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos18.flickr.com/23758791_34fef495a2.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Flags" /></a>

On to the show:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/23759906/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos18.flickr.com/23759906_3742c60c3a.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Fireworks" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/23760322/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos18.flickr.com/23760322_23440945ec.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Fireworks" /></a>

And my favorite:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/23759418/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos18.flickr.com/23759418_c9d5899e7d.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Fireworks" /></a>

Nice shots, HM. I've been in the DC area for 16 years, but have never made it down to the Mall for fireworks. Used to watch them from across the Potomac at the Iwo Jima memorial for a few years, but even that has become too much of a hassle. I don't care for crowds much. We went over to a friends house, and all our kids ran around catching fireflys as the dad launched illegal fireworks.

We used to be able to see the very tops of the fireworks at the Mall from our front porch, but they built a new building in Arlington that blocks our view now. Now we just see a glow in the sky and hear the distant booms.

Did you get caught up in the post-fireworks practice evacuation the cops were doing?

East St. Louis regularly fights Camden, NJ (a suburb of Philadelphia) for worst city in the country. It is a toilet, and part of me thinks it should be bombed over and started from scratch.

St. Louis is in the midst of a renaissance of sorts...new construction, people coming back to the city, etc. I left 6 years ago in part because none of that sort of thing was happening. I've been back more over the past year, and just moved back a week ago, but so far, I'm impressed. I'm sure I'll get sick of it again soon, though. :)

I'm not sure. For just about the first time in however many years I've done this, the cops managed to stop the pedestrians at an intersection, and let some cars out, so maybe. But when I got home, Channel 9 News said that they hadn't started the evacuation procedure until about an hour after the fireworks ended, by which time I was either home, or very close.

I've never been to D.C., but I've thought about going a lot of times. I want to get 100+ people to have an "eat in" on the subway with me. I also want to go to either NYC or DC with my gun, and then write a letter to the Mayor telling them I have my gun, and I have a RIGHT to have it, and that I don't intend to give it up. Then when they arrest me, I'll fight it all the way to the Supreme Court. Though these days, the Supreme Court rules in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution, so I don't know how much that would accomplish.

I've been trying for years to make change peacefully from within the system, but the door is quickly closing. It may already be closed. The shit will hit the fan in America before too long and when it does, we'll face a bloody second American revolution. And being that we're a nuclear power, other nations might get involved.

The violence will probably happen after abortion has been made illegal.

Don't know if there's any truth at all to the following, but I like the scene.

Benjamin Franklin Gates: A toast? Yeah. To high treason. That's what these men were committing when they signed the Declaration. Had we lost the war, they would have been hanged, beheaded, drawn and quartered, and-Oh! Oh, my personal favorite-and had their entrails cut out and BURNED!
[brief pause]
Benjamin Franklin Gates: So...

Snopes? They don't know a shark from a dolphin. :Flush:

Darn, Undertoad beat me to it. This link goes into the history of John Hart, and what was true and false in the rumors about him. I wasn't able to post it earlier.

Well, nobody wants to admit they come from Long Island.....
and I'll bet they were Brit kidney stones that killed him. :p

I'm just amazed at the amount of grandification after only 220 years.

I have this terrible vision of a huge marble monument in Washington. A 60 foot G.W. Bush holding a rifle and a bible. Inscribed on the walls will be quotes about the great man from influential patriots of the time. Coulter, Hannity, and Limbaugh.

Of course this will all be from a history pieced together from documents and recordings that survived the great book-burning/degaussing of 2050, mostly Fox Network archives and the National Review.

The Great Degaussing? :lol2:

Yep.

And the few remaining sources like The Congressional Record and The Internet Archive will be regarded like the Necronomicon and the Apocrypha are today. "Yah, riiiiiight. Like that ever happened."