Marsha Blackburn: “I am so grateful we had the opportunity to be on the floor this week and to have a discussion about our Nation's…”

“I am so grateful we had the opportunity to be on the floor this week and to have a discussion about our Nation's security and how we protect and preserve freedom. I have just a couple of thoughts that I wanted to bring forward as we begin to think about July 4th and Independence Day and how we commemorate that day and do honor to the heritage and the tradition of that day and of the freedoms that we enjoy. I came across something this week that I think is just so pertinent to our discussions of this week as we focus on freedom. In 1826, a very feeble and old John Adams received a group of Quincy, MA, town leaders. They were seeking his help in planning an anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Independence. They wanted the former President to pen a toast that would be read at the event. Imagine their surprise when what they got from John Adams was two words. The toast that he penned for them was simply this: ``Independence forever.'' It is what we had fought for, what had been won, what people had desired, and their passion--independence. Keeping that independence is indeed the task. I am certain they wanted something much more ambitious and eloquent, but they simply got the nugget of what centered him and what should center us. In the Declaration, our Founding Fathers recognized that ``Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes,'' but that true liberty could not thrive in the grasp of tyranny.…”