July 4th is time to think of what our forefathers went through

How’s your Fourth of July weekend going?
Mine has been pretty spectacular – from both a culinary and a visual point of view.
My family spent the fourth on a neighbor’s deck, eating a holiday feast with all the things one might expect on this Yankee Doodle holiday – potato salad, burgers, grilled chicken and fruit salad.
We then sat back and let the neighbors in the subdivision below our property fill the night sky with an array of fireworks that rivaled anything I’ve seen at Kauffman Stadium.
I guess it’s natural to enjoy a holiday like Christmas without really thinking about its real meaning, and the same is true of the Fourth of July.
A few years ago, a pastor at Timothy Lutheran Church in Blue Springs gave a stirring and emotion-charged sermon about the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Their lives were never the same, and neither are ours. I wrote a column about those signers and I’ve been asked by a few readers to repeat it this Fourth of July weekend.
Here is a portion of that column. I owe a great deal of thanks to Pastor John Petersen, who inspired me in much the same fashion he was inspired by the 56 men who put their lives and reputations on the line by signing one of the great documents in the history of our country:
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.
They didn’t just sign a document, stating that they would pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor – they knew that once they put pen to paper, they could be put to death by the British for this treasonous act.
Twenty-four signers were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners, wealthy men who could live a life of opulence had they not signed that declaration.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships destroyed by the British. He died in debt.
Thomas McKean was hunted by the British and had to keep his family on the move. He, too, died in poverty.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed and his wife was captured by the British and died in jail.
 John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.
I hope this makes you appreciate those Black Cats or M-80s you shot until the wee hours of this morning just a bit more.
Those men put everything on the line so we could live a country that is severely flawed in many ways, but is still the best nation on the planet.
Happy Fourth of July, and God bless America.
We need his blessings now more than ever before.