Is it time to declare our independence again?

I truly love my country, but I wonder if my daughter and the future generations of Americans will enjoy the freedoms and rights so many have sacrificed, fought, and/or died for.  I often wonder if many Americans have actually achieved the American Dream... or borrowed it.

The news media and pundits talk about the pending disaster if we don't raise the debt ceiling, but I doubt if the way to fix the financial situation of someone who has maxed out their credit cards is to give them more credit. When I think of our country's indebtedness to foreign entities, I think of the truth in Proverbs 22:7, which says, "The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower [is] servant to the lender."

I'm told that these things are much more complicated than that, but I wonder if they really are.  Pappy would say if you're in a hole, quit digging. I'm a simple man and I marvel at the original one-page document that declared our independence from our oppressors.  The greatest country the world has ever known was initiated with a one-page document... and we couldn't even get health care done with less than 2,500 pages.

My 86 year-old father is approaching the end of his life very soon, he served for over three years in World War II, both in the North Atlantic and later in the Philippines.  There were 41 sailors aboard when Dad's ship went down in the Atlantic during September of 1944, and he was one of just 19 that made it to the third day of surviving in the ocean when they were finally rescued. He, like so many others, sacrificed his comfort, convenience, and future while serving his fellow Americans.  I wonder if I'm worthy of his sacrifice.

Today, so many of us are unwilling to sacrifice a few minutes for our country, let alone three years, let alone our lives.  We also have politicians who do not value or respect the great sacrifice, trust, and fiduciary responsibilities that have been placed in their hands - they have forgotten who they work for... the American people.

Is it time to declare our independence from self-indulgent gluttony, declare it from unfathomable debt to those that dislike and despise us?  Is it time that we collectively sacrifice as an American people to throw off our debt (and politicians who refuse to do so)?  How little a sacrifice that would be when compared with the sacrifice of our men and women in the military, serving us, as undeserving as we are, but also serving America... as deserving as she is.

I wonder, is it time to declare our independence again?