QUESTION FOR FOURTH OF JULY: IS IT TIME FOR A SECOND REVOLUTION?

With its observance just days away, many have already carefully planned how they want to observe the 224th anniversary of the American Revolution, an event with antecedents many citizens little understand or appreciate. We only know the Fourth of July is a time of fireworks, trips to visit friends or relatives, barbecues and cook-outs. We observe Independence Day as a tie of recreation, not celebration or contemplation.

Such a transformation over more than two centuries is not difficult to understand. It would be almost impossible for us in a new century to comprehend fully the willingness of our forefathers to forgo their protected communities and put their lives on the line for something as nebulous as freedom from a distant monarchy, ready to risk everything they possessed and treasured for the right to achieve self-government.

No such sacrifices are required of U.S. citizens these days. It is impossible for us to conceive of any situation that would mandate we risk everything we have worked for in order to achieve the rights of assembly, worship and speech, and it would be even more outrageous for us to face the possibility of our own deaths just to protect the rights and privileges of other citizens.

Prior to the outbreak of war between the highly trained forces of King George III and our ragtag colonial militias, a plebiscite would probably have produced a majority vote against a declaration of either independence or war against the British throne. This isn't to say we were happy with all that English enforcers were demanding of us, but life was improving among most of the colonists in the 80-plus years before the Revolution after first risking their lives crossing the Atlantic. Even the reason given for the start of hostilities taxes was hardly valid in light of the king's attempts to recapture only a small portion of the expenses he was incurring to protect colonists from the Indians and fortify the shores against the avaricious expansion attempts of France and Spain.

Numerous historians believe a vote before 1776 would have yielded a 2-to-1 majority for King George, although all we know precisely is that our nation's first settlers were hardly revolutionaries nor did most seem sufficiently trained to take on the world's best disciplined and equipped army.

It was not until a handful of leaders and an even smaller number of writers began to outline the possibilities of freedom and human rights by revolution many colonists give much thought to any declaration of independence.

Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" was among the first and most assuredly the best of early pamphlets that began to flame a flickering spark of destiny among those whose principal thoughts were centered on survival in a new, primitive land. It's difficult to espouse life's noblest principles when you have neither the means nor the opportunity to fulfill basic human needs.

The early colonists were not revolutionists. They were farmers, tradesmen, trappers, silversmiths, doctors, barbers, teachers, journalists, sailors, preachers. That they were able to prosper even slightly in an economic world that was barely kept alive by separate currencies issued by several of the colonies was a tribute not to the soundness of the monetary system but by the sheer power of expediency.

Virtually all of our colonial system was held together by connecting strands that were barely visible, scarcely viable. The early world of basic commerce, the half-effective means of governing, the lack of anything resembling total communication among the citizens, the struggles to gain religious freedom in an environment dominated by a foreign monarch were all valid reasons against such a wild-eyed, foolish idea as revolution and self-government.

Only the truly deranged would call for mobilization against the well-armed and well-trained forces that were just outside their homes. Even the insane could not validate that if such an effort were launched, it would have the slightest chance of success.

Perhaps the greatest deterrent of all was the absence of anything resembling a collective majority opinion, much less a majority willing to attempt an armed revolt against their mother country and its ruling aristocracy.

Independence by force?

Forget it!

Self-government by all?

Forget it!

A land that guaranteed not quite all of the freedoms granted by the Magna Carta?

Forget it!

The right to worship one's Creator in the religion of choice?

Forget it!

Our colonial forefathers came to the New World to be farmers and merchants, not patriots.

If this is so, then what happened?

What caused men who were seeking peace to dedicate their lives to a cause that could well create their destruction? No one ever threw off the shackles of totalitarian rule by underestimating the propelling power of the human desire for freedom of the mind and heart and soul.

It is a force that has guided the destinies of revolutionary movements since the beginning of time, and it is the inspiration that divinely guided our founding forefathers.

Just what are the aspirations of today's Americans?

Dare we examine them too closely for fear of revealing truths that could shake the confidence we express in ourselves, our society, our governments, our leaders?

Do we really know what inspires us, makes us uniquely blessed in a world still filled with hunger, poverty, disease, intolerance, deprivation, slavery, prejudice, hate?

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of Missouri News and Editorial Service.