[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 93 (Thursday, July 11, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1238]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    JULY 4TH ADDRESS BY MAYOR ROBERT BLOMQUIST OF OLMSTED FALLS, OH

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                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 11, 2002

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to share 
a 4th of July speech given by Robert Blomquist, Mayor of Olmsted Falls. 
Mayor Blomquist eloquently spoke of the values and principles on which 
our country was founded that we must remember and cherish on 
Independence Day.

       Welcome to the City of Olmsted Falls 4th of July 
     festivities. Five weeks ago we gathered here to honor and 
     remember the members of our countries' armed forces whom paid 
     with their lives for the ideas behind the event and document 
     that we celebrate today, the anniversary of the signing, and 
     adoption, by the continental congress, or the declaration of 
     independence.
       Today is just not about the birth of a nation. Today is a 
     day in which we pay respect and tribute to the men that 
     pulled together in one document, the most comprehensive and 
     complete ordered thoughts about the nature of man, the nature 
     of government, and how human beings can exist to pursue life, 
     liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The careful thinking 
     that is the fabric of our great nation. A statement of how we 
     can be free as individuals, but still coexist in a structured 
     and orderly society.
       When I think about the history of our country, I am so 
     grateful that I am a citizen of the United States, that my 
     children and I are the beneficiaries of the ideals of the 
     best human nature.
       Think with me for a moment.
       This land is the product of a unique confluence of the 
     evolution of technology, economics, politics, and the nature 
     of man. In the 17th century it became technically and 
     economically possible for European powers to claim and settle 
     lands beyond their boundaries. Politically Spain, France and 
     Great Britain competed to exploit their claims in the new 
     world and expand their influence.
       The original 13 colonies were settled between 1607 and 
     1732, by Great Britain. It took 125 years and began 170 years 
     before the birth of our nation. People first came as agents 
     of the king to exploit the natural resources, and later came 
     to escape the king and a situation where men were not 
     recognized as being created equal, but where it was believed 
     that men were given rights by station of birth.
       At the time this land was being settled. The ideas of what 
     is the true natural state of man. What is freedom and 
     liberty? What is the role of government? What are the divine 
     rights of the king as a sovereign? Should a king truly govern 
     without the consent of his subject people? These ideas were 
     being explored by such philosophers as Thomas Hobbes, John 
     Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. At the time the colonies 
     were flourishing.
       These ideas flourished with the American colonies. They 
     took root and grew in the minds of both the intellectual and 
     the layman as natural state of the human desire to be free 
     and independent itself.
       We know that this led to the events of our American 
     Revolution. As we openly rebelled against an unjust king we 
     still tried to organize ourselves and our government to 
     better reflect mans desires.
       The declaration of independence when you read it was 
     nothing more than an indictment and redress of grievances in 
     the literal sense. It was an announcement to the world of the 
     reasoning behind the rebellion. When Congress adopted the 
     declaration of July 4, 1776, England virtually ignored it. It 
     received a 6 line mention in the London Morning Post, just 
     below a theater notice. But on these shores it galvanized a 
     people, to expend treasure and lives to fight for the ideals 
     of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that we still 
     enjoy today.
       The Declaration of Independence was the product of the best 
     thinking on social and political philosophy of the time. It 
     became the blueprint of our constitution. And continues to 
     this day to inspire men to pledge their lives, their 
     fortunes, and their sacred honor.
       In the year that has just passed, between today, and last 
     year's celebration we again find it necessary to defend the 
     foundation of our freedoms enjoyed as Americans.
       At the time Jefferson wrote it and 56 men signed it and 
     were declared treasonous, and sentenced to death, no one knew 
     what would happen as a result of the Declaration of 
     Independence. We have the advantage of 226 years of history 
     to evaluate and appreciate this event.
       Shortly before his death in 1826, Thomas Jefferson also had 
     the advantage of the passage of time to reflect. The 
     following is a passage of a letter written by Jefferson, as 
     he had to decline an invitation to Washington City to 
     celebrate Independence Day because of ill health. Expressing 
     his regrets that he could not join with the small group of 
     worthy gentlemen who created and signed the declaration, he 
     said, ``I should have indeed delighted to gather with an 
     exchanged congratulations with those who joined with us to 
     have elected to not submit to the sword, and to enjoyed with 
     our fellow citizens after a half century of prosperity to 
     continue of the choice we made. To assume the blessings of 
     self government that restores the right of the exercise of 
     reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are open to the 
     rights of man. For ourselves, let the annual return of this 
     day forever refresh our recollections of these rights and our 
     devotion to them.''

     

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