An Independence Day to remember.

To commemorate our nations birthday, I want to go back to 1942 and the celebration that wasn’t during WWII. We all celebrate and commemorate what happened in 1776. The mark of American independence, and the beacon for liberty, freedom, and democracy around the world, which our founding fathers worked so tirelessly to create is well known, especially on this day. As a big fan of history, I am also a big fan of the founding fathers and their accomplishments, but I want to take a look at a 4th of July celebrated by another generation. A generation that the founding fathers would be very proud of, and a generation to which America owes a large amount of gratitude. That generation is forever known as America’s “Greatest Generation.”

On the fourth of July circa 1942, there were very few picnics; there were even fewer parties. America did not stop to celebrate its birthday that year. Instead, America continued to work. Military and government institutions continued to work as brave soldiers were off fighting and preparing for war. The U.S. Post Office stayed open, most businesses stayed open, and to set an example President Franklin Roosevelt kept the White House on a business as usual schedule. The Greatest Generation learned to appreciate and embrace sacrifice. They understood the toil and sacrifice that so many had endured leading up to and in the years following that first Independence Day in 1776. It’s because of the sacrifice that so many gave in 1942 that we can enjoy those celebrations of family, friends, food, and fireworks. Below I have included a short speech that President Roosevelt gave in 1942. I encourage everyone to take a look at it, and realize the sacrifice that so many gave.

As you are sitting enjoying the fireworks and having a good time with family and friends take a moment and think about that sacrifice that so many gave. For every colorful firework, and every loud “boomer,” there are hundreds of American soldiers buried around the world. Those brave soldiers fought so valiantly for the cause of enduring American independence and freedom. As we celebrate America’s independence, we also remember the sacrifice of so many which allows our traditions to continue.



“For 166 years this Fourth Day of July has been a symbol to the people of our country of the democratic freedom which our citizens claim as their precious birthright. On this grim anniversary its meaning has spread over the entire globe--focusing the attention of the world upon the modern freedoms for which all the United Nations are now engaged in deadly war.
On the desert sands of Africa, along the thousands of miles of battle lines in Russia, in New Zealand and Australia, and the islands of the Pacific, in war-torn China and all over the seven seas, free men are fighting desperately--and dying--to preserve the liberties and the decencies of modern civilization. And in the overrun and occupied nations of the world, this day is filled with added significance, coming at a time when freedom and religion have been attacked and trampled upon by tyrannies unequaled in human history.
Never since it first was created in Philadelphia, has this anniversary come in times so dangerous to everything for which it stands. We celebrate it this year, not in the fireworks of make-believe but in the death-dealing reality of tanks and planes and guns and ships. We celebrate it also by running without interruption the assembly lines, which turn out these weapons to be shipped to all the embattled points of the globe. Not to waste one hour, not to stop one shot, not to hold back one blow--that is the way to mark our great national holiday in this year of 1942.To the weary, hungry, unequipped Army of the American Revolution, the Fourth of July was a tonic of hope and inspiration. So is it now. The tough, grim men who fight for freedom in this dark hour take heart in its message--the assurance of the right to liberty under God--for all peoples and races and groups and nations, everywhere in the world.”