Why America Celebrates the Fourth of July

Chicago lakefront fireworks

A patriotic America loves the 4th of July.

Chicago has a short, glorious, hot and muggy summer. Early July, weather is wonderfully warm and just about all of Chicago's 9 million residents can be found at a parade, family picnic, town festival or various beach or town fireworks events. This happens all across America on the 4th.

Chicago holds a great fireworks show at Chicago lakefront, city center, for those who fight the crowds to make it all the way down there to obtain a scarce blanket spot at Grant Park.

A week long food celebration goes on at Grant Park prior to the 4th (or 4rd) of July festivities called the "Taste of Chicago". During the week, throngs of Chicagoans head to the "Taste" and nosh on grilled bratwurst, cheesecake, pizza and all sorts of yummy Chicago restaurant food favorites.

Taste of Chicago

But why does America celebrate the 4th of July so fervently?

* * *

Are 300,000,000+ American people,

of various ethnic backgrounds,

all really that super dooper fond

of barbeques, parades and fireworks?

* * *

Or is there something a bit more to it?

I found a great answer, eloquently explained, over at the Heritage on a post from 2007 called "Independence Forever: Why America Celebrates the Fourth of July":

"The Fourth of July is a great opportunity to renew our dedication to the principles of liberty and equality enshrined in what Thomas Jefferson called "the declaratory charter of our rights."

As a practical matter, the Declaration of Independence publicly announced to the world the unanimous decision of the American colonies to declare themselves free and independent states, absolved from any allegiance to Great Britain. But its greater meaning-then as well as now-is as a statement of the conditions of legitimate political authority and the proper ends of government, and its proclamation of a new ground of political rule in the sovereignty of the people. "If the American Revolution had produced nothing but the Declaration of Independence," wrote the great historian Samuel Eliot Morrison, "it would have been worthwhile."

"The structure of the Declaration of Independence is that of a common law legal document. The ringing phrases of the document's famous second paragraph are a powerful synthesis of American constitutional and republican government theories. All men have a right to liberty only in so far as they are by nature equal, which is to say none are naturally superior, and deserve to rule, or inferior, and deserve to be ruled. Because men are endowed with these rights, the rights are unalienable, which means that they cannot be given up or taken away. And because individuals equally possess these rights, governments derive their just powers from the consent of those governed. The purpose of government is to secure these fundamental rights and, although prudence tells us that governments should not be changed for trivial reasons, the people retain the right to alter or abolish government when it becomes destructive of these ends."

"Our Declaration of Independence has been copied by emerging nations around the globe, its themes adopted in places many of us have never heard of. Here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights. We the people declared that government is created by the people for their own convenience. Government has no power except those voluntarily granted it by the people. There have been revolutions before and since ours, revolutions that simply exchanged one set of rulers for another. Ours was a philosophical revolution that changed the very concept of government.

Ronald Reagan, address at Yorktown, October 19, 1981"

... so happy 4th of July to America and all freedom lovers on earth!