{"id":1228,"date":"2006-07-04T11:25:55","date_gmt":"2006-07-04T15:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/2006\/07\/04\/happy-independence-day\/"},"modified":"2011-03-19T11:14:52","modified_gmt":"2011-03-19T15:14:52","slug":"happy-independence-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/2006\/07\/happy-independence-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Independence Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/heidi4thjuly.gif\" alt=\"Happy Independence Day\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p>In the words of an English teacher at Wellesley College&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>O beautiful for spacious skies,<br \/>\nFor amber waves of grain,<br \/>\nFor purple mountain majesties<br \/>\nAbove the fruited plain!<br \/>\nAmerica! America!<br \/>\nGod shed his grace on thee<br \/>\nAnd crown thy good with brotherhood<br \/>\nFrom sea to shining sea!<\/p>\n<p>Oh beautiful, for heroes proved<br \/>\nIn liberating strife,<br \/>\nWho more than self their country loved<br \/>\nAnd mercy more than life!<br \/>\nAmerica! America!<br \/>\nMay God thy gold refine<br \/>\n&#8216;Til all success be nobleness<br \/>\nAnd ev&#8217;ry gain divine!<\/p>\n<p>Oh beautiful, for patriot&#8217;s dream<br \/>\nThat sees beyond the years!<br \/>\nThine alabaster cities gleam<br \/>\nUndimmed by human tears!<br \/>\nAmerica! America!<br \/>\nGod shed his grace on thee<br \/>\nTill selfish gain no longer stain<br \/>\nThe banner of the free!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?<br \/>\n~Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/p>\n<p>It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives.<br \/>\n ~Dorothy Thompson<\/p>\n<p>Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors.<br \/>\n ~Abraham Lincoln<\/p>\n<p>We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.<br \/>\n ~William Faulkner<\/p>\n<p>Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.<br \/>\n~Abraham Lincoln<\/p>\n<p>He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself. <br \/>\n~Thomas Paine<\/p>\n<p>Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed &#8211; else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.<br \/>\n~Dwight D. Eisenhower<\/p>\n<p>There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.<br \/>\n~William J. Clinton<\/p>\n<p>I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.<br \/>\n~Simone de Beauvoir<\/p>\n<p>Where liberty dwells, there is my country.<br \/>\n~Benjamin Franklin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the words of an English teacher at Wellesley College&#8230; O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea! Oh beautiful, for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved And mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine &#8216;Til all success be nobleness And&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/2006\/07\/happy-independence-day\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,5,3],"tags":[2445,2446,2447,245,2448,347,2449,2450,317,158,284,558,817,807,467,2451,2452,150,2453,2454],"class_list":["post-1228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alien-nation","category-culture","category-politics","tag-abraham-lincoln","tag-america-the-beautiful","tag-benjamin-franklin","tag-bill-clinton","tag-corporate-cronyism","tag-corruption","tag-dorothy-thompson","tag-dwight-d-eisenhower","tag-environment","tag-freedom","tag-george-w-bush","tag-greed","tag-liberty","tag-patriotism","tag-pollution","tag-ralph-waldo-emerson","tag-simone-de-beauvoir","tag-stain","tag-thoman-paine","tag-william-faulkner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4167,"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1228\/revisions\/4167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virushead.net\/vhrandom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}