Thank you Cathie! As a Californian who has researched the South for over 40 years I sometimes feel I am more a Southerner than a westerner. Helene : Fw: [HANCOCK-L] For our southern researchers-Happy 4th Helene: Thank you, I totally agree. Hope your 4th of July will be the best ever. Cathie Langdale ----- Original Message ----- From: "Helene Pockrus" <helenepockrus@earthlink.net> To: <HANCOCK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2001 10:27 PM Subject: [HANCOCK-L] For our southern researchers-Happy 4th > On this Independence Day, I will remember the fire of liberty that burned in > the Virginia House of Burgesses, when Patrick Henry, a Southern man, rose to > declaim, "Give me liberty or give me death." > > I will remember those who stood at Concord's "rude bridge that arched the > flood" and fired the "Shot heard 'round the world." I will remember the > cold, > ragged, ill-clad, hungry, frostbitten men who suffered the privations of > winter at Valley Forge because they counted liberty dearer than the comforts > of home and hearth. > > I will remember General Washington and Light Horse Harry Lee, Southern men > who grasped the horn of Liberty and refused to let it go. I will recall that > it was Harry Lee who said that Washington was "First in war, first in peace, > and first in the hearts of his countrymen." > > I will remember the great Republic of Republics those men carved from 13 > colonies in a corner of the great British Empire. > > I will remember that it was Liberty for which they stood against the > legions of the king - not equality, nor the radical egalitarianism that > infects the body politic today and, like an incubus, sucks away at the very > lifeblood of America. > > I will remember the second great war for American Independence that was > fought in 1861 and I will remember that the Republic of Washington, > Jefferson, and Madison died in that struggle. > > I will remember the centralization of a nation and the gradual erosion of > individual rights in the name of welfare. > > I will remember that no man today is truly free to pursue his own economic > course - that federal mandates, city, county, state and federal taxes weigh > upon his shoulders until he stoops beneath their burden. > > I will remember the freedoms so lightly surrendered by those who prefer to > wear the chains of welfare than to boldly walk in the free air of liberty. > > I will remember that Southern God-fearing men established this Republic > and that godless Northern men presided over its demise. > > I will remember those who fought against insuperable odds at Shiloh, > Corinth, Vicksburg, The Wilderness, Nashville, and Petersburg. > I will remember that they sought only the liberty, secured by their sires > in 1776 and that they too pledged their sacred honor, fortune and lives for > that principle. > > On this Independence Day, I will remember and mourn for fallen heroes who > lie > in Flanders' Fields, on Normandy's beaches, in the jungles of Pacific > islands, on windswept Korean hills, and in forgotten rice paddies in > Vietnam. > > And I will think hard about modern politicians who would sell our liberty > and > the blood of America's martyrs to the highest bidder for 30 pieces of > silver, > or a mess of pottage. > > God bless those Southern men who secured our liberty and watered its tree > with their own blood. As the nation they established pales further into the > mists of history, I tremble when I consider the shackles that are forged > for > my grandchildren by those who love ease more than liberty. > > > > > > ==== HANCOCK Mailing List ==== > Check out our HANCOCK Project World Wide at: > http://members.aol.com/heatherjvw/Hancock/ > ==== HANCOCK Mailing List ==== Check out our HANCOCK Project World Wide at: http://members.aol.com/heatherjvw/Hancock/