4 de julio – Celebrando con Orgullo Nuestra Ciudadanía Americana

4 de julio – Celebrando con Orgullo Nuestra Ciudadanía Americana

Celebramos el 240 aniversario de la independencia de los Estados Unidos de América. Gesta noble y patriótica de 13 colonias que se levantaron en revolución armada contra el poderoso imperio inglés, proclamaron su independencia, derramaron sangre por ella y lograron la victoria.

El 4 de julio de 1776 en Puerto Rico éramos una colonia de España gobernados por el coronel José Dufresne.

240 años después Estados Unidos es la primera potencia mundial. Tiene como presidente al primer afro-americano, Barack Obama. Nosotros estamos en quiebra y tenemos a Alejandro García Padilla como gobernador de la colonia. 

Tenemos el bochornoso privilegio de ser la colonia más antigua del planeta.

Nos enviarán una Junta de Control Fiscal porque gracias a nuestros gobernadores y a nuestra complacencia, dejadez y conformismo no sabemos administrar nuestros recursos económicos.

Lo más denigrante es que hay muchos en Puerto Rico que al igual que recibimos a los españoles por Aguadilla y a los americanos por Guánica, recibirán a la Junta por Isla Verde con bombos y platillos. Después de todo es el amo que viene a salvar al pobre pueblo puertorriqueño.

Cuando llegará el día en  que emulemos a Rafael Martínez Nadal y gritemos a los cuatro vientos, ESTADIDAD o INDEPENDENCIA

Por Israel Roldán

Independence Day 2016

            Have  a Happy and Safe 4th, please read?

Subject: Independence Day 2016

This year on July 4, we celebrate the 240^th anniversary of the birth of our nation with the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

On July 4, 1776, approximately 2.5 million people lived in the 13 colonies of King George III.  Today 321.2 million of us live in these United States.

The Second Continental Congress appointed a committee of five to draft the Declaration of Independence – Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston.  Jefferson produced the first draft, which Franklin and Adams edited. It was submitted to the Continental Congress on June 28 and after further revisions and additions, finally adopted on July 4. Fifty-six members of the Congress signed it.

• John Hancock, President of the Congress, was the first signer.

• Benjamin Franklin, 70, of Pennsylvania, was the oldest signer.

• Edward Rutledge, 26, of South Carolina was the youngest.

What kind of people were the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence?

They were well-educated men of means. Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, and nine were farmers or large plantation owners.

They signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well the penalty would be death if they were captured. Nevertheless, they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to the cause of Independence. And many paid a terrible price.

Nine fought and died from wounds or hardships suffered during the Revolutionary War. 

Five were captured by the British, charged as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas 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 the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., saw that British General Cornwallis had made the Nelson home his headquarters. He urged General Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

So please 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.

America is a great country. You can say what you wish without being concerned about reprisal.  You can go to the church of your choice.  You have the opportunity to make something positive happen for yourself and those dear to you.  And you do not have to be fearful about what you do regarding your future.

No other place in the world has these same freedoms.

That said, America is facing some tough challenges today, both from around the world and within our own borders.

Domestically, our economy is still struggling, our healthcare system and schools need fixing, and our lack of direction needs serious consideration.  Faith in our government is at a low point.

Bipartisanship and reaching across the aisle are perceived by far too many as weaknesses instead of good government.  Civility, at times, seems like a thing of the past.

In the Middle East, after more than a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the region is more volatile and dangerous than ever.  Terrorism knows no borders.  The very freedoms we cherish are threatened every minute of every day.  Just think back to the words of Ronald Reagan:

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream.  It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”

 So how we respond to these challenges will go a long way toward determining whether we can remain what he so famously called “a shining city on a hill.”

We are still the beneficiaries of the stand taken on July 4, 1776.  As we honor America and celebrate our freedoms, we should learn from the example set by our nation’s Founders.

Each of us needs to look in the mirror and ask, “Have I done enough to ensure the America we love will continue to progress and thrive?”

When President Reagan left office in 1989, he had this assessment for America:

“She’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.”

More than twenty-five years later, America is still a beacon to the world.  It is up to each and every one of us to ensure she remains so for generations to come.

So as you eat hot dogs and hamburgers and see some of the $247.1 million worth of fireworks (most imported from China) that will burst in the night sky, think about what President Reagan said and what our next President is going to have to do.

Happy Fourth.

         today our government tries to see how much they can put in their pocket!

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA , AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS,    ONE NATION UNDER  GOD ,  INDIVISIBLE, WITH   LIBERTY  AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!    KEEP IT LIT!!

And God Bless our Military who are protecting our Country for our Freedom. 
Thanks to them, and their sacrifices, we can celebrate the 4th of  July.

I watched the flag pass by one day.   It fluttered in the breeze.A young Marine saluted it,   And then he stood at ease. I looked at him in uniform;  so young, so tall, so proud. With hair cut square and eyes alert, he’d stand out in any crowd. I thought how many men like him   had fallen through the years. How many died on foreign soil;      how many mothers’ tears?How many pilots’ planes shot down?   How many died at sea?  How many foxholes were soldiers’ graves? NO, FREEDOM ISN’T FREE!   I heard the sound of Taps one night,   when everything was still. I listened to the bugler play And felt a sudden chill. I wondered just how many times That Taps had meant ‘Amen.’        When a flag had draped a coffin   of a brother or a friend.I thought of all the children,   of the mothers and the wives, of fathers, sons and husbands With interrupted lives. I thought about a graveyard  At the bottom of the sea.        Of unmarked graves in   Arlington .   NO FREEDOM ISN’T FREE   Enjoy Your Freedom       and    God Bless Our Troops. When you receive this,        please stop for a moment   and say a prayer for our servicemen Of all the gifts you could give a   U.S. Soldier, prayer is the very best one.        God Bless all!