On July 4, 1776, 245 years ago, our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. It was on that sacred day, in that charter, that the foundation for our country’s philosophy was laid and the principles that would inform our system of government was forever enshrined. It read, “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.”

We must never forget those guiding principles. They are what makes America unique. And let us also never forget that America did not become great because our government made it great. America became great because “we the people” made it great.

But more recently, the country that we have known and loved has faced great hardships, and our founding principles are in danger of being dismantled. Our culture has changed, our civil liberties have been denigrated, and our leaders have let us down when we needed them the most. The core values of our Founding Fathers’ vision have been ignored or deemed irrelevant. Our freedoms have been taken away by excessive government overreach.

In the past year, during the pandemic, Democrat governors in many states across the country shut down businesses, restaurants, parks, beaches, schools, churches, and other houses of worship. They took power away from “we the people” and rewarded themselves with multi-million dollar book deals and self-serving press conferences.