This weekend we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country's independence. Two hundred and fifty years. Two and a half centuries since 1776. Most of us can't really wrap our heads around what our forefathers went through to make sure we'd live free.
Life back then was hard in ways we can barely picture now. Most people farmed, working from before sunup until well after dark just to get by. Kids weren't shielded from any of it — they worked the fields right alongside the adults as soon as they were old enough to walk. No weekends. No days off. No safety net. You ate what you grew, and that was that.
Disease was everywhere, all the time. Smallpox, yellow fever, tuberculosis — sicknesses we hardly think about today wiped out entire communities. Real medicine barely existed, and cures often didn't at all. Here's something that gets me every time: during the Revolutionary War, disease killed more soldiers than actual combat did, and smallpox was the worst of it.
No running water. No electricity. No refrigeration. You hauled your water by hand from a well or a stream. Things we don't even think twice about — flipping a switch, turning on a tap, opening the fridge — would have looked like magic to the people who built this country.
Our forefathers knew hard work. They were tenacious to the core. And lucky for us, they had one thing in common: they stood up for what they believed in. They gave up everything — their homes, their families, the lives they knew — to fight for a way of life they believed was worth defending.
Think about what they were up against. Outnumbered. Outgunned. By any reasonable measure, they had no business winning. On paper, there was no way they should have beaten the most powerful empire on earth. But nobody counted on their grit — on the belief that if they wanted a life of freedom and dignity, they'd have to fight for it, and maybe die for it too.
So they fought. Not because winning was a sure thing. Not because any of it was easy. They fought because the cause mattered more than anything else they had. Without that kind of courage and stubbornness, the world we live in today would look nothing like it does.
That's what sticks with me most. These weren't larger-than-life figures. They were farmers, blacksmiths, shopkeepers — fathers and sons who decided some things matter more than comfort, more than safety, more than life itself. They looked at impossible odds and didn't flinch. And because they didn't, we get to live the way we live now.
So as you celebrate with your friends and family this weekend, take a minute to think about it. Think about the sacrifices made by the people who came before us. Think about what a big deal it is that we still get to gather, still get to celebrate, still get to call ourselves free — 250 years on.
I'll be honest, I can't fully grasp what they lived through. The hardship, the fear, the not-knowing — it's beyond anything most of us will ever face. But I can carry their love for this country. I can carry their grit. And I can honor them by standing up for what I believe, the same way they stood up for what they believed.
As a Marine Corps veteran, that hits close to home for me. I've worn the uniform. I know, in my own small way, what it means to serve something bigger than yourself. So this weekend, I'll be standing proud right alongside all of you as we celebrate the 4th — me with my family, you with yours.
Fly that flag high. Don't forget what it cost to get here.
Happy 4th of July, America. Here's to 250 more.
David Warren
