valarltd | Independence

I want to say something amazing and grand. Quote some great thinker as everyone else is doing.

Instead, a couple of songs for the holiday, both by Leslie Fish.

Jefferson and Liberty
The night of fire is yet to come
The tyrant's shadow down the years
demands we kneel, or take the gun
And go shed blood instead of our tears

So, rejoince, Columbia's sons, rejoice!
To tyrants never bend the knee
But lend your heart and hands and voice
To Jefferson and liberty!

"Every twenty years," he said
"The times are ripe and over-past
To raise rebellion's fiery head
And cast off tyranny's shel at last!"

So, rejoice, Columbia's sons, rejoice!
To tyrants never bend the knee
But lend your heart and hands and voice
To Jefferson and liberty!

No man is good nor wise enough
To rule another, or disown
The rights of every woman and man
To live and let live and be left alone

So, rejoice, Columbia's sons, rejoice!
To tyrants never bend the knee
But lend your heart and hands and voice
To Jefferson and liberty!

The starry banner that did fly
O'er freedom's bloodied barricades
Now flaps and fades in foreign skies
O'er palaces that empire made

So, arise, Columbia's sons, arise!
Arise that ye might yet be free!
Cast off the forces that made lies
Of Jefferson and liberty!

The world that once did turn and watch
The struggle for democracy
cries, "Have Columbia's sons forgotten
Jefferson and liberty?"

So, arise, Columbia's sons, arise!
Arise that ye might yet be free!
Cast off the forces that made lies
Of Jefferson and liberty!

But we, the heirs of Jefferson
Like ancient Sons of Liberty
Will bear indeed the rebel's gun
And never bow to tyranny!

So, arise, Columbia's sons, arise!
Arise that ye might yet be free!
Cast off the forces that made lies
Of Jefferson and liberty!

Freedom Road

Did you think it was easy to change all of tomorrow?
Did you think you'd never meet time, defeat and sorrow?
Did you think all the walls would crumble and you'd never lose a fight?
Get back up on your feet and do it right.

Chorus:
Freedom road is a long haul.
Freedom road is a long haul.
But it's worth the ride
even if we never get there at all.

Did you think the first leader come preaching down the pike
could give you one big answer, as if we were all alike?
Well there's no set salvation, you shoulda known all along
that Jesus, Marx and your guru could be wrong.

This is the lonesome valley, that you've gotta walk yourself
Go out and find your answers, you can't take 'em off the shelf
And you've gotta make tomorrow from just what you got today
So get up off your ass and find a way!

Time's coming down like thunder and you can ride or fall
And let the millstones grind you till nothing's left at all
But we've got just two choices and one's to get home free
And second best is nothing you want to see.

It's worth the ride, even you never get there at all.