While I greatly appreciate my readers and visitors from around the world, today’s entry is driven by my nationalistic pride… for here in the States we’ll be celebrating our Independence this weekend.

But before the grills are fired up or the first pitches are tossed, I invite you to take a moment to do two things.

First, take a spin through our Declaration of Independence and feel the weight of the text and appreciate the gravity of the moment.  The authors and signers put their hopes, dreams, and lives on the line for a vision, a hope for a better future.  Their actions led to a war in which many lives were lost.  Their resolve was absolute and their names worthy of far more than placards on failing financial institutions.

Second, in the relative ease of our modern lives, consider from what you’d like to declare your independence.  This exercise is not meant to trivialize the original endeavor but rather to add urgency and importance to the latter.  

Do you seek escape from the tyranny of debt or freedom from the increasing bounds of an expanding waistline?  Take a stand and declare your individual independence from your personal tyrants.

The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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, – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. – Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. – And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Photo By: Leaca’s Philosophy

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And so it happens… I’ve been tagged again.  Well, three times actually.  My taggers include the likes of:

Stephen at the Rat Race Trap

Ron at the Wisdom Journal

Steven at Hundred Goals

I personally enjoy reading (and subscribing) to each of their sites so I wanted to return the favor by participating in this meme.  This is my second meme, you can read the first on here.  I’ve tried to be a pretty open book on my site but I’ll give it my best to surprise you. 

But first, here are the rules:

1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post – check, see here and above

2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post – check, see below

3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and links to their blogs – check, see below below

4. Let them know they’ve been tagged – check, but you’ll just have to trust me

7 Things You Never Knew You Didn’t Know About Me… here goes, BTW, the first entry will establish a loose theme for this edition of my meme

1) On Tuesday of last week (May 19) I accepted a new job.  If you’ve been following along you’ve noticed that I recently accepted a buyout and that I’ve been on the job search.  That search recently ended and I’m very much looking forward to beginning this next phase of my career.

 2) With this new job, I’ll get to sleep in my own bed every night. For the first 12 plus years of my career I traveled almost exclusively.  I’ve had some local projects and some time between projects but most of my career has entailed weekly travel – out Monday mornings and back Thursday or Friday nights.

3) My job-related travels have enabled me to work and meet people in many great places.  I’ve participated on projects in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Dublin (Ireland), Canterbury (England), Dorado (Puerto Rico), Morpeth (England), Holland (MI), Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Parsippany, Hartford, Louisville, Kingston (TN), Atlanta, St. Louis, Washington, DC, Terre Haute, Brooklyn, Groton, Wilmington, and I’m sure several other cities that are not coming straight to mind.

4) Travel has its perks, and I’ve enjoyed several cool (and “sponsored”) events that I would have missed had I not been such a road warrior.  Teams I’ve seen play in their home venues include: Yankees, Orioles, Phillies, Pirates (best stadium in baseball), Nets, 76ers, Ducks, Braves, Louisville Bats.  Other cool sites on the road include Dorado Beach, Liberty Bell, Anheuser Busch brewery tour, Louisville Slugger factory tour, West Coast Choppers, Matt Hotch Choppers, Chico Choppers, Churchill Downs, Catalina Island, Atlantic City, Times Square, Dave Letterman Show, Madison Square Garden, many many great steak houses, and a great cigar bar in Philly.

 5) I graduated from the University of Alabama and moved to St. Louis for my first job. I earned both my undergrad and graduate degrees in Tuscaloosa and joined a big 4 consultancy’s St. Louis based location after school.  I lived there about 2 years before transferring to Atlanta.  I stayed with this employer for the first 12+ years of my career… which makes my new (soon to start) job only the second stop in my career.

 6) More information about my career is available on my LinkedIn profile.  I’ve made a point of not talking in too specific terms about my employers and career in this forum.  This is a decision I’ve made to foster a separation but not because I have anything to hide.  I have a LinkedIn badge on the bottom right of this (and every) page that links to my profile homepage.  Feel free to check it out and add me to your network if you’d like.

 7) I want a passive income stream.  I guess that’s not a real surprise, who wouldn’t want a passive income stream?  But what you may not know is that I have 3 eBook ideas and 1 great marketing/advertising idea in my head.  My challenge is getting them moving beyond the conceptual phase.

Phew, so that wasn’t so bad.  Now I have to tag 7 new folks to keep this thing alive.  Ok, here’s what I want to do – to add a little spin to it.  Rather than tagging 7 folks that I already know pretty well.  I’m going to identify 7 bloggers whom I’ve only recently bumped into via comments or shared links but whom I’d like to get to know better.  Here goes….

The Digerati Life

Enemy of Debt

The Financial Dad

Money Funk

Porter Coaching

Steadfast Finances

Prime Time Money

Photo By: noniphon

Your Turn – If you enjoyed this article, I would personally appreciate it if you would consider commenting below and/or subscribing to our Free Updates via email or RSS updates.  Thanks!