Gene Schaerr

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Happy Independence Day! There’s a story from the end of the Revolutionary War I want to tell as we celebrate America’s 250th Birthday, and it’s one everyone in the world can learn from. George Washington, at that moment, after commanding the American forces to victory, was the most powerful man in the new country. Many people talked about making him King of America. Across the ocean, King George was sitting with an American painter, and asked what he thought Washington would do now that the war was ending. The painter said he believed he would go back to his farm. The King said, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.” As the war officially ended, Washington came to speak to Congress and said, “Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theater of Action.” He returned his commission they’d given him in 1775 - after more than 8 years of leading the Americans to victory without pay, and he was home at Mount Vernon for Christmas. Of course, he was elected as our first President a few years later, and after two terms, showed the same selflessness again when he willingly gave up his power and went back to Mount Vernon again. That’s true greatness. He had all the power in the world. But power, alone, does not make you great. Washington’s greatness came from being a true servant - to a cause much bigger than himself. His greatness was his complete lack of selfishness. The whole story of American Independence is a story of selflessness. It’s a story of people who set their self-interest aside and worked for each other. We’ve all heard the line about “We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” Apparently, Ben Franklin might have actually never said that. But that’s fine, because the same mentality is right there in the last line of the Declaration of Independence, published on this day 250 years ago: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” We mutually pledge to each other. No one was in this alone. No one was in it for themselves. This was a group of people with different backgrounds who were in it for each other. Today is a reminder: greatness comes from what we do for each other, never what we do for ourselves. That’s a lesson that applies no matter what country you call home. It’s a lesson that doesn’t require any law passed by a politician, because, let’s be honest, if you’re waiting for selfless politicians, I really hope you are not holding your breath. All of us have the power to be there for the people around us. For our families and friends. For our neighbors. For everyone. All of us can reach for greatness. It’s as simple as looking beyond yourself, seeing past the mirror, picking your eyes up from your phone, and pledging to be there for each other. Happy Fourth. May you all find your own version of greatness today by lifting each other up. Lift up your neighborhood. Lift up America. Lift up the World.

In 1982, Robin Williams did a routine as the American Flag for the Norman Lear produced tv special "I Love Liberty" created to bridge political divides - and it's one of the greatest pieces you'll see 🇺🇸

250 years ago today, on June 29, 1776, New Yorkers looked out at the water and saw a nightmare on the horizon. The British fleet had arrived, and so many ships filled the bay that witnesses said the masts looked like "a forest of pine trees" growing out of the sea. The timing could not have been more brutal. This was the empire's answer to the rebellion, and it was overwhelming. The first wave of around 45 warships and transports dropped anchor off Sandy Hook and Staten Island carrying General William Howe and roughly 10,000 troops. Within days it kept growing. Then his brother Admiral Richard Howe arrived with more. It would eventually swell into one of the largest seaborne invasion forces of the entire 18th century, hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of professional soldiers and German mercenaries, aimed at one city. Now sit with the timing. While that forest of masts was filling the harbor, delegates down in Philadelphia were in the final days of debating whether to declare independence. They voted for it on July 2 and signed off on the wording on July 4. So at the exact moment America was being born on paper, the most powerful military on earth was already anchored off its coast, getting ready to strangle it in the cradle. The people of New York understood exactly what they were seeing. Alarm bells rang, panic spread through the streets, and soldiers sprinted to their posts to stare at a force they had almost no hope of matching. Washington's army was outnumbered, outgunned, and about to get badly beaten in the battles for New York that followed. That's the part that gets lost in the fireworks every Fourth of July. Independence wasn't declared from a position of strength. It was declared with an enemy armada already sitting on the doorstep, knowing full well what was coming. They signed their names anyway.

June 29, 1776 — The Committee of Five continued refining the Declaration. Members included Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. Jefferson’s draft was essentially complete and waiting for Congress.

Thomas Paine publishes an open letter in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, under the name “Republicus,” which advocates for the name “United States of America” for the new nation now emerging. This is the first time such a term has been used.

Thomas Jefferson submits the final draft of his Declaration of Independence to Continental Congress.

Happy birthday to Justice Clarence Thomas—an American hero.