On July 4, 1776, it became necessary for the US to declare its independence from Great Britain, its multitudes of offices, and its harassment

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....

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

• 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 benefits of Trial by Jury:

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

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."... 
 
Above, World War II US Air Force pilot and his Stearman biplane; below same soldier in his Air Force Uniform sometime in the 1940's, surviving. Thanks, Dad.

• Born in Brooklyn in 1922.

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