At this time of year, with the approach of the celebrations all across the country for the 4th of July, I wanted to take a moment to jot some thoughts down that really have little to do with marketing at all, and more to do with something that affects not only our businesses but our everyday life. In word, "freedom".
The freedom we enjoy as Americans is something we all, myself included, have a tendency to take for granted. We get up every morning and go to work at companies someone was free to dream up, and then to start and build. We live in a country where I still believe if you have a great idea for a good or service that people want you are free to develop that idea and make your fortune. We are free to fail, then dust ourselves off get back up and try again.
America is changing, and we have our issues, but my belief is that, knowing the kind of people that make up cities and towns all across this great nation, we will rise and grow stronger through our current adversities. Notice I did not say anything about politicans, I think the strength of the country is in her everyday PEOPLE! People who may take for granted freedom on a regular basis, but in the next few days will hopefully contemplate it once again and perhaps, just maybe, that contemplation THIS year will stick with them for longer than the length of a fireworks display or a backyard barbecue. We are tremendously blessed with the freedom we exercise and having just watched the HBO miniseries John Adams on DVD, I am struck by the men that forged and pounded out that freedom with their blood, sweat and tears as they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to institute and defend it.
Let the celebration this year of Independence Day include a pledge to take the yoke of freedom upon all of our backs as workers, employees and business owners and together move this country forward and upward again in spite of, and in some cases against, obstacles that have been and are being put in our paths by powers both foreign and domestic, from within and without! The only people that will turn this economy around ultimately reside in the offices, or cubicles, or work stations to your right and left, on floors above and below you. With a whole lot of faith and hard work we will see growth and prosperity again!
I leave you with some words from writers and orators far more eloquent than I, our founding fathers:
I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth. - John Adams
Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one. - Benjamin Franklin
The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. - George Washington
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated. - Thomas Paine
The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men. - Samuel Adams
HAPPY 4th OF JULY from Xapsis Integrated Marketing
Doug
