Salutations and Greetings, Ready Nutrition Readers!  Yes, I’m paraphrasing “Charlotte’s Web,” by E.B. White, to give a start to this greeting to you, prepper families and survivalists all…for Independence Day.  We can take much of the history of our country and use it to our ends to help us in our endeavors even today.  You are the men and women who are the descendants of pioneers, of the rugged individualist who came to this country for many reasons…religious persecution, lack of opportunity in their original homeland, the desire to be free, and/or all of the above.

“So what does prepping and survival have to do with Independence Day?” you may ask.  Everything.  It has everything to do with Independence Day because on that day men affixed their names to a document…the Declaration of Independence…and declared that they and those of their ilk would no longer submit to tyranny and the oppression that accompanied it.  You are doing that now, with your preparations, with your planning, and your steadfast refusal to “go gently into that good night” when the SHTF.

July 4th is just a date on the calendar, but what made it unique is that our forefathers put pen to parchment and affirmed they would also not “go gently into that good night.”  They were a rugged folk of opportunistic spirit who recognized a scam when they saw it: hence the Boston Tea Party.  They knew that things were going to go afoul.  They knew it and they took a stand, just in the same manner that you are taking a stand.

I wrote an article about the Victory Gardens and how Americans, in the middle of a world at war, still provided and prepared for their families and made up for shortages and scarcities by being self-reliant and self-sufficient.  There is more: a lot more.  Those people knew the importance of the 2^nd Amendment and the fear of God and love of family and community in their hearts.  They were not that much different from us, from the prepper community…taking a stand and standing up for what they believed.

There was the Jerry Sandusky case with Penn State a few years ago, and two lawyers were discussing Sandusky’s guilt or innocence.  This discussion took place on Fox News, and the liberal lawyer said that Sandusky faced an adverse situation and (if anything) the adverse circumstances would build his character and see him through.  Obviously, it didn’t, as Sandusky was convicted on multiple counts.  Neither did the liberal lawyer point out that Sandusky’s position, if he was not exonerated, was inexcusable, and the lawyer did not take into account the shattered lives of college athletes who were hurt badly by a trusted coach.

The conservative lawyer, however, pointed out the key to the whole statement in a riposte that will be with me for the rest of my days, so sagacious a saying it was:

            Adversity does not build character: it reveals it.

So true.  As preppers, we can stock up on as much as our homes can hold.  We can provide for a family of four for the next fifty years.  We can have every technical and scientific marvel at our disposal for medicine, home security, self-defense, and agriculture.

            But what good all of this if we are not committed to taking a stand?

This doesn’t mean standing on a street corner with a bullhorn and trumpeting how you think that it should be (although that is your right and privilege under the 1^st Amendment).  This also does not mean an armed foray into a government-run national park, or refusal to pay income taxes or our debts.

It means taking a stand to share the knowledge of our experiences and beliefs with others while there is still time…and then standing up to toe the mark when the S does indeed HTF.  It means teaching your children and grandchildren about the Constitution, about the Declaration of Independence…explaining what it means and how our country came about.  It means forming a community…with family, with neighbors, with like-minded individuals and committing to one another to help one another when the time comes.

It means remembering your history – our history – as Americans, and the men and women who died enabling you to grow up in the best country in the world and follow your own lives.  Not a collective, but a community.  Take the time this Independence Day to reflect upon all of the greatness of this country.  Not her military might or her successes in warfare, although that contributed to it.

The greatness: that you and your family can barbeque good, clean food, and share it in safety among yourselves and with neighbors, thanking God for the food, and knowing that all of it was made possible by the men and women who did so much – sacrificed so much of themselves and their comforts – in order to have a free nation today.

And the humility: that all of it can disappear in the twinkling of an eye with “Red Dawn” actually occurring here, in our country…in our home.

You share with Miss Tess Pennington and me your thoughts and comments and contribute to this little community of preparedness-minded people.  We also glean knowledge from you, and as it is written that iron sharpens iron.  We must all be more: we must refine that iron and must be steel, for the times to come.  Our Independence Day links us to the actions and sacrifices of those who went before us.  We owe it to them to carry on that legacy: to survive what is coming, and the triumph of not allowing it to turn our hearts from goodness and the pursuit of happiness and peace.

You are more than just preppers and survivors.  You are the inheritors of a legacy of freedom that was borne of personal struggle and resilience.  See, our founders prepped, and when the time came, they watered the Tree of Liberty.  We, their sons and daughter will do no less when the time arises.  And more: we’ll do it as wisely as we can.  May God Bless all of you and your families, and I wish you a Happy Independence Day!  Keep up that good fight!  JJ out