EPIC VOICES OF LIBERTY

ON THIS FOURTH OF JULY & FOREVER MORE

ON THIS FOURTH OF JULY here are five epic voices speaking from the past into this present moment:

1. GEORGE WASHINGTON:

"The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps as deeply, as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people."

2. ABRAHAM LINCOLN:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

3. THOMAS PAINE:

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

4. RONALD REAGAN:

"In this country of ours took place the greatest revolution that has ever taken place in the world's history. Every other revolution simply exchanged one set of rulers for another. Here for the first time in all the thousands of years of man's relation to man, the founding fathers established the idea that you and I had within ourselves the God-given right and ability to determine our own destiny. 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."

5. JOHN ADAMS:

"Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it."