July 2026
- Jul 1
- 3 min read
Dear Friends,
Well, it’s July and we’re heading into the America250 weekend. It has me thinking about the nation’s founding and the yearning of the human heart. The United States of America was founded on a promise and as citizens, not subjects, it is our duty to lean into those promises. I’m reading Jeff Shaara’s This Glorious Cause currently and it is reminding me of the struggle and sacrifice of ordinary people being called to an extraordinary mission.
What is it? Can I do it? Should I do it?
Each day in America we are called to some extraordinary thing or another - whether it’s launching a business, raising a family, or navigating one’s vocation. In America, we’re called to realize the promises of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is a challenge and an opportunity that only in America could be possible.
A few resources to get you in the mood:
Importance of 1776 by G. Wash featuring the word “bruh”
The Story of America video series
Pursuit: The Founders Guide to Happiness podcast series
Jeff Shaara’s Rise to Rebellion and This Glorious Cause
A "POEM" FOR JULY
The Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson + Patriots (July 4, 1776)
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably th
e same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.*
[continue to read the grievances launched at the Crown “He” here…]
*This text was broken up in a “2026 sort of way” to encourage reading the length– its original format was one singular paragraph, but our 2026 brains have a hard time with monolithic text, so, you’re welcome…
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
MEET OUR MEMBERS
Meet Cecilia Berkemeier! You might catch her at the club in the afternoons during the school year and at Cottage special events because she works for Godfrey-Lee Public Schools as a speech-language pathologist, and needs a beautiful place to catch up on paperwork, planning, and people– Cottage people. Cecilia is an active westsider. When she’s not throwing themed neighborhood parties (like a Pentecost reading of TS Eliot’s Four Quartets), you’ll also now find her behind the counter at westside gem, Roots Brew Shop, as the new Captain of Operations. Taking on this new endeavor, alongside her other activities, has her pondering “you take you with you”...and how you translate skills built or learned from one place/function to another. |  |
Comments