by Angela S. Young

Created on: July 03, 2007   Last Updated: June 29, 2010

What purpose does the fourth of July holiday have?  Many of us get out our red, white and blue, light up our grills and watch the fireworks and parades, but how many of us really understand what this celebration means.  Those of us who do understand may need to consider again the wonders of this celebration that may have become just another holiday after many years of celebration.  We also need to understand the purposes of this holiday so that we can teach them to our children, passing down the legacy to future generations that we may continue to celebrate this date in our great country.

In order to fully understand the ramifications and importance of this celebration, we need to take a trip back in history to the early days of the United States of America.  Back in those days, the country was owned by other countries who had sent settlers to this new land for several reasons, but many in order to make money.  The British government, mother of the 13 original colonies, treated it's American citizens as children with no rights to speak out against injustices by the government.  England continued to levy heavy taxes upon these people, putting them under extreme hardship and undo burden.  The people had no say in the matter, and eventually, they rebelled.  They raised the battle cry "Taxation without representation!' as they sought to deal with the issues in many ways.  Their legal attempts made no difference to the crown, and on June 7, 1776, Richard Henry, a Virginian, made a demand for the Continental Congress to proclaim freedom from British rule for the United States.

While we have some redress in the present, our government continues to levy hidden taxes on almost everything we touch, raising the percentage of our taxation to way beyond the official amount the government claims.  As people struggle more and more with government intervention in their lives, its important to remember this time in our history and work to address these issues before it comes to that point.  After all, we cannot declare freedom from ourselves.

Once the situation came to a boiling point, and the people refused to bow down to the onerous taxes, excises and other burdens laid upon them by the mother country, the next step was to form a committee.  While this may seem like an end to the issue to us who have watched committees do their work, at that time, the committee, formed by the Second Continental Congress with

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