Backbone Radio

Supreme Judge of the World

Slated on Backbone Radio, July 5 Listen every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver... 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs... and streaming live at 710knus.com.

Imagine a Congress with no party labels, no limos, no spin, the courage to risk the gallows, and the humility to submit their work to judgment by Almighty God. Such were the men who met at Philadelphia in defiance of the strongest empire on earth and enacted the Declaration of Independence, 233 years ago this week. By that action, and with Americans' representatives "appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of [their] intentions," the crown colonies of June 1776 became the "free and independent states" of July. All that then remained was for George Washington's army to make it stick and for the signers to face paying the ultimate price. Some did, rest their souls.

** This Sunday on Backbone Radio, we'll talk about what July 4 really means with Bill Armstrong, President of Colorado Christian University... and Brian Kennedy, President of the Claremont Institute.

** With deadly enemies still seeking America's downfall, Matt Mayer of the Heritage Foundation, formerly of Gov. Owens' staff, will describe his new book on homeland security and federalism.

** And proving the Spirit of '76 isn't gone, we'll hear from a darkhorse Republican candidate for Governor, Dan Maes, and from a couple of citizen activists out to repeal the recently imposed car tax, Lou Schroeder and Freda Poundstone.

Oh, by the way, imagine state legislators unafraid to anger the executive by "opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people" - another line from the Declaration. The present Colorado General Assembly specializes in such invasions and would tolerate no reference to "manly" anything. The times that try men's souls are still with us.

Yours for the self-evident truths, JOHN ANDREWS

Thoroughfare of Freedom

Slated on Backbone Radio, June 28 Listen every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver... 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs... and streaming live at 710knus.com.

"O beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern impassioned stress a thoroughfare of freedom beat across the wilderness!" So wrote Katherine Lee Bates in the inspiration of climbing Pike's Peak on a summer day in 1893. Have you been to a mountaintop lately? A friend of mine recently did his first 14'er and came back all aglow. But it's easy to lose the lofty vision in the flatlands of daily life. Time overtakes nations as it does individuals. If we allow America in its third century to grow soft and tired, the thoroughfare of freedom could become a road to serfdom. What a betrayal of our trust that would be; what a tragedy for the world.

This Sunday, Backbone Radio gets you ready for Independence Day with viewpoints from "stern impassioned" patriots helping relate the news of 2009 to the spirit of 1776. I hope you'll be listening.

** I'll talk about Iran with Steve Schippert of ThreatsWatch.org and North Korea with Chuck Downs, an expert on human rights violations in that hellhole.

** Plus health care and the "cap & tax" bill with former congressman Ernest Istook of the Heritage Foundation and Jeff Crank of Americans for Prosperity.

** Plus a report on the Wounded Warriors project from Col. John Folsom and another lesson in History 101 with our own Dr. Bill Moloney.

"Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law," prayed Katherine Bates for our country in her famous poem. Scandals, celebrity headlines, and the Obama agenda all suggest we're not quite there yet. We're not about to quit, though -- not while we have breath.

Yours for America the Beautiful, JOHN ANDREWS

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