Today is the day we citizens of the United States of America celebrate the anniversary of the founding of our country. July 4, 1776 was certainly a momentous day.

I've been reading the book Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis, which is now available in paperback. This book documents the personalities of those responsible for the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Any good history book like this shows both the good and the bad sides of the people involved and this book is no exception. Madison, for example, is often called the father of the U.S. Constitution because he singlehandedly wrote large portions of it, but he was part of the Virginian delegation and, as such, declined to take a real stance on the issue of slavery.

It's amazing to me the first 30 to 50 years of this republic were so extremely fragile. Nobody had ever done anything like what these men were doing. There was enormous temptation for the new republic to splinter. Slavery was an explosively divisive issue. State versus federal government issues were abound. All this while Great Britain refused to recognize the new republic.

That everything worked out relatively okay and has lasted this long is an amazing story.

I noticed one of my fellow Utah OSSers, Aaron Toponce also wrote about July 4 on his blog today. It's interesting to read the comments his short Happy-July-4 message generated.

There are many who obviously are troubled by the state of conditions in the United States today. Some people believe our government is on a road to fascism and totalitarianism. Other believe our government isn't doing enough to address glaring security problems. Despite its problems, I know there isn't a better place to live on this planet!

Happy Independence Day everyone!

P.S. Declare your independence by disassociating yourself from the republican or democrat parties! They've both betrayed their constituents.