“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Those words rang out in Philadelphia in 1776 and have echoed here and around the world countless times. Yet, we find that a sizable part of the country now doesn’t believe those words, and instead pursues policies and beliefs to limit life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in favor of imposing their vision and their control over the country, freedom be damned.

247 years after declaring independence with soaring rhetoric and an extensive set of grievances against the King of England and his government, patriotic Americans should be celebrating this great country. Instead, we find ourselves having to defend it from enemies within who detest it and every ideal it stands for. They have been on a non-stop campaign since January 20, 2009 when Barack Hussein Obama took the oath of office, to tear apart America, race by race, institution by institution. When a reprieve arrived in the form of Donald J. Trump taking that same Presidential oath on January 20, 2017, but meaning it unlike Obama, the enemies within redoubled their efforts and completely unmasked themselves.

We were told forthwith that journalists are not objective contrary to what they claimed to us while they savaged the likes of Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan, the Tea Party, and anyone else not on the liberal plantation. Oh no, they cried, we are duty bound to openly espouse liberalism because of the existential threat posed by President Donald J. Trump and his supporters to our move to fully embrace socialism. Make America Great Again, the rallying cry of the Trump movement, the journalists raged, is the wrong direction, the wrong goal for the country, and as journalists, it is our duty to oppose the movement and, especially, Trump himself.

Joining them were prominent liberals around the country who said how dangerous it was for the MAGA movement to be allowed to flourish, but more so, how dangerous it was for ideas connected to MAGA to be put forth, and, indeed, ideas connected to President Trump himself fell under that. They want everyone silenced who disagrees with them. All that talk they made over the years about changing the channel or the station if you didn’t like what was being played, not reading or listening to a particular book or song, which they neatly summed up with the grand, eloquent, tolerant, courageous declaration: “I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death you’re right to say it.” Well, that was just talk. They really only meant themselves because when it comes to what those on the left don’t like, they want it removed, eliminated, blocked, and otherwise prevented from ever seeing the light of day.

I only want to celebrate our independence on this day. I only want to speak of the respect and awe I have for the Framers who began this country and shaped its government, and the respect and awe I have for those who fought against the greatest military power of the day to gain that independence. What they continued from the time of the first colonists, the form they gave it that created ultimately the United States of America and the unique American culture of freedom and opportunity, and led to generation after generation of people who pursued, succeeded, and reached for the highest goals, defended the weak and took up arms around the world, and brought my ancestors here from Italy with the promise of a better life as Americans, is what I want to write about and celebrate.

But like my American ancestors, I am compelled to put aside my wants and desires because there is a danger to freedom, my freedom, my family’s freedom, my country’s freedom. I must confront that danger and that is why on July 4, 2023, I am writing about the liberal left and what they are doing. I am sounding the alarm, ringing the bell, not of liberty now, but of the call to duty, the call to stop our enemies, and protect and restore our country now.

Independence Day 2023.