Don't tread on me...

As we celebrate as a nation, our independance, we are offered a moment to reflect on our past, our present, and the direction of our future. I think then, that it is appropriate to consider our past and the images that have formed our perception of national pride. I

think that although it was never officially adopted as a national flag, the Culpepper flag is demonstrative of the colonists attitude at the inception of our nation. a rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike is a very appropriate image to communicate the righteous anger of the colonist on their violated human rights. they had rights as Englishmen that were violated in such a way that the colonists challanged the greatest military, the largest empire, and the king himself in such a way that the world still has not recovered from the shock wave that it generated.

We hold these truths to be self-evident.

it is not surprising that an untrained Army mounted a campaign against their parent nation. a group of farmer colonists rose up against a monarchy that had oppressed them from 3000 miles away, but what is surprising is that they won.

That all men are created equal.

we have endured many struggles to establish freedom for all men, but have only recently been able to rise above the challenges presented by racial, ethnic, and religious bias.

That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.

it is by no product of american ingenuity, or economic prowess that we have the rights and freedoms provided by our constitution. these rights are part of a natural law written by our creator, and not subject to interpretation and limitation imposed by the law of man.

that, among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Our rights are not limited to those that are listed, but we have rights beyond what is covered. we have a right to enjoy life, exist with liberty, and pursue our happiness in whatever form that may take.

our rights cannot be abridged, cannot be denied, and must be defended. just like colonial america, we stand ready to pursue, engage, and destroy the enemies of freedom, justice, and equality wherever they may present themselves. crouched like a rattlesnake in the bushes, we are prepared to administer justice on this global platform.

Although, we as Americans come preprogrammed with the justice of our forming documents in the very material of our construction, i think that it is occationally necessary for us to remind ourselves of what it is we stand for, what it is that we believe, and what it is that we fight for...

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

I, Andrew John Haberer, do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foriegn and domestic; that i will bear true faith and allegience to the same; and that i will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.