3,059 Days For Freedom

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things.
The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling
which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.
The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight,
nothing which is more important than his own personal safety,
is a miserable creature
and has no chance of being free
unless made and kept so
by the exertions
of better men than himself.
~John Stuart Mill

April 19, 1775 to September 3, 1783 is 3,059 days.

That's the time between the first shots in Lexington, MA to the Treaty of Paris, which brought the American Revolutionary War to a formal end, but not after 130,000 died of smallpox, up to 12,000 who died of starvation or disease as prisoners of war in rotting British prison ships in New York, 2,500 alone died at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-78, and up to 25,000 were seriously wounded or disabled by the war.

In two days we'll fire up the grill, play baseball, watch fireworks, and maybe take a nap.

We'll do so freely because 56 men signed the most revolutionary document the world had ever seen in 1776.

They could not predict the outcome of what they set into motion, but they knew freedom was worth risking it all.

Remembering the sacrifices of so many three centuries ago, and the sacrifices of our current military personnel, should help us all savor that cold drink and that hot dog on the 4th of July.

Here's to you having the courage of your own convictions to do the most with the freedom you've been given.