No   doubt   there’s

N    O    T    H    I    N    G

Like   it,

but   being

A       C  A  R  I  N  G      C  A  T  A  L  Y  S  T

C          O          S          T          S

Yesterday, on the Fourth of July

millions across the Country  celebrated

Independence Day.       .       .

It probably went largely unnoticed

that  FREEDOM

isn’t   F R E E

In this world

S      O      M      E      O      N      E      S

truly  pay  the  price

for people to be free.        .       .

Doubt it?

Go back to the very signers of

The Declaration of Independence

ALL  56  of them

paid with what you can’t cash in a Check

I F 

they   won   the   war   with   the   British

there would still be years of hardship as a struggling nation.        .        .

If   they   lost

they would have faced a hangman’s noose.       .       .

and yet there it is where it says,

“WE    HEREWITH    PLEDGE   OUR   LIVES, OUR   FORTUNES,  AND   OUR    SACRED    HONOR.”

They signed it.        .        .

but do you know what price was paid for those very signatures?

The late, great Paul Harvey

in his broadcast on July 4, 1974 reminded us

That Carter Braxton, a wealthy planter and trader, after signing saw his ships swept from the seas to pay his debts.    .    .He lost his home and all of his property.  He died in rags

         *              *            *

That Thomas McKean of Delaware was so harassed by the enemy that he was forced to move his family five times in five months.     .     He served in Congress without pay–his family in poverty and in hiding

    *               *                *

That Thomas Nelson, Jr of Virginia raised $2 Million on his own signature for provision for our allies, the French Fleet.        .        .After the War he personally paid back the loans which wiped out his estate; he was never reimbursed by the government and he died bankrupt

  *                 *                *

That John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside while she was dying; his 13 children fled in all directions for their lives.     .     His fields and gristmill were laid waste and for more than a year he lived in forests and caves to only return home from the War to find his wife, dead, his children, gone, his properties, gone only himself to die a few weeks later of exhaustion and a broken heart  

*                  *                 *

Of all the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence

few were long to survive.          .          .

Five were captured by the British

and severely tortured before dying.          .          .

Twelve had their homes

from Rhode Island to Charleston

sacked and looted

occupied by the enemy

or burned.     .     .

Two of them

lost their sons in the Army

One had two sons captured.        .        .

Nine of the 56 died in the War

from its hardships or merciful bullets.       .       .

They had learned that liberty is so much more important

than security.       .       .

For   T H A T    they pledged their lives

their   fortunes

their   sacred   honor.          .          .

They  fulfilled  their  pledge

They  paid  the  price

   AND      FREEDOM      WAS      BORN

T       R       U       T       H :

I didn’t give that much thought

with the second helping of potato salad

the extra piece of apple pie

the barbecue

and certainly not during

The  Fireworks

b   u   t         w   h   y.        .        .

why not think

give second thought

that being a Caring Catalyst

especially then

or even at the very moment

doesn’t come with a cost.          .          .

that needs

P               A               Y               I               N               G

which    leads    to    the    ultimate    question

On the Fourth or the Fifth of July

or   E V E R:

Are    You    Willing    To    Pay    IT?

They   did.       .        .

D O    Y O U ?