By Connie Thomas
Quite unlike the 1996 film “Independence Day”, where disparate groups of people who converge in the Nevada desert to launch a counterattack against an extraterrestrial race and were victorious, our Independence Day is when the Founding Father delegates of the Second Continental Congress approved the final wording and declared on July 4, 1776, that the Thirteen Colonies were no longer subject to the Monarch of Britain King George III and were united, free and independent states. They wrote this nation’s Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Constitution to guarantee the prosperity and freedoms of all our citizens, big and small, as an everlasting and selfless act.
It was John Adams who envisioned the Independence Day celebration to be filled with fun, games and fireworks rather than an occasion for displaying military strength as one might expect. In a letter to his wife, Abigail Adams, he wrote “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary festival….It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shews, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations (fireworks) from one end of this continent to the other from time forward forever more.”
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