INDEPENDENCE DAY MESSAGE

Dr. John Hubisz is a retired North Carolina State University physics professor. John and I were colleagues and friends at College of the Mainland where we both fought the Marxist faculty faction that controlled the college administration. John left COM in 1993 to teach at NCSU at the same time that I retired. Here is his personal Independence Day message:

Happy 4th of July!

I hope that you all are planning to read the Declaration of Independence today and perhaps discuss it with others.

Growing up we celebrated on the evening of July 3rd with a bonfire followed by fireworks, following John Adams suggestions. Hamburgers and hot dogs and tonic were the order of the day on the 4th with parades and all kinds of competitions. When I moved down South, it was parades and competitions during the day and fireworks in the evening. Locally, we have a small town that has celebrations on the 5th. I do not know the origin of that practice. I wonder how many folks think back to what those early framers of the Declaration went through.

I was home when my brother, James, came to me when he turned 17 and asked that I intercede with our parents to sign papers so that he could join the Marines. I was surprised at how much he knew about our history and the history of the Marines. I convinced our parents using the same arguments that he did. Later, as a Marine, he came to visit me in Knoxville (I am sure that he was AWOL!) excited that he was going to Vietnam. His letters from Vietnam were always positive and about the people that he met.

Two hundred years earlier, a young Thomas Jefferson (not much older than James) came in to town to see what was going on in the town hall. As usual there were pockets of “old men” arguing about the “goings on” around the colonies. Listening, while leaning against the door jamb, one voice began to predominate and the clusters of arguments faded as that one speaker held their attention. Perhaps seven years older than Jefferson, but still in his 20s, this “farm boy from the ‘sticks’”, we might say, Patrick Henry, became great friends with Jefferson, the rather rich land owner. While I was surprised at how much James knew, I guess that I shouldn’t have been.

As we celebrate today, we still must be reminded to continue to fight those who would destroy that experiment in freedom that makes the United States stand out among nations today. This document was forged out of a long string of such documents starting with the Nicene Creed. They all should be studied from an early age in order to see that it has been a rough fight that should not be taken for granted in any age.

Best wishes,
John Hubisz