Coffee With Jim, July 3

On this special Independence Day program we do a bit of time travel, and talk about this holiday, its origins, and its history. “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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” These ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence have been our national focus for nearly 250 years. Those words have given courage and inspiration to suffragettes, civil rights marchers, immigrants, and abolitionists as we evolved as a nation, and moved toward transforming those words into a reality.  

For many presidents and national leaders the Fourth of July was an opportunity to inspire the nation to live up to the ideals in that declaration, and to unify the country in the pursuit of that common goal. On occasion the speeches slid into the realm of political. And there were speeches laced with brutal honesty about our failure to live up to those ideals.

But the most memorable, the most inspiring speeches were those that quoted the words of the Declaration of Independence as a reminder of our national goals, invoked the passionate spirit of America’s founding fathers, extoled the virtue of liberty, and bridged chasms of division to unite the people in a common goal.

Today's program is sponsored in part by the Roadrunner Lodge in Tucumcari, New Mexico and the Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri.