There is absolutely nothing most Americans do not love about the early summer activities surrounding “the Fourth of July”, or, more popularly,  “the Fourth”. It is for many families a turn-key day, or series of days. Parade. Cookout. Golf. Boating. Hiking. Hanging out at the beach house.

May it ever be thus. Purists insist on always referring to it as Independence Day because, well, that’s the actual name of the holiday. It is a day to observe, reflect and celebrate the independence from British rule that led to the formation of a new nation that would change the course of human history. Those on the front line fighting for this independence sacrificed everything, most significantly their lives. They were not trained soldiers. They were lawyers, doctors, shopkeepers, clergy and otherwise “regular” folk.

Americans through the generations have coveted and celebrated our “independence”. But the passage of time has seen Independence Day transformed from a solemn observance to a period of ritual frivolity. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all. But there are another 364 days when life goes on and plays out, and those who are engaged in 21st Century America sense that our independence is under siege as never before. Our independence is not a “given”, not a slogan, and certainly not acceptable to many, both within our borders and beyond our borders.

In 1963, Congress was exposed to a document entitled, “Communist Goals for Taking Over America”. We can only imagine that our elected leaders reviewed the document, took it seriously, but could not comprehend how the so-called goals ever could be achieved on U.S. soil. Newsmax.com 15 years ago drew attention to the list of goals. Even then, many would have scoffed at the notion that our society would tolerate them.

“On Jan. 10, 1963, Congressman Albert S. Herlong Jr. of Florida read a list of 45 Communist goals into the Congressional Record. The list was derived from researcher Cleon Skousen’s book “The Naked Communist.” These principles are well worth revisiting today in order to gain insights into the thinking and strategies of much of our so-called liberal elite.”

These are the Communist goals within America that were read into the Congressional Record 55 years ago. Many we now accept as part of American life, and others are gaining traction:

• Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
• Promote the UN as the only hope for mankind.
• Do away with all loyalty oaths.
• Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
• Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
• Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
• Gain control of all student newspapers.
• Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
• Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
• Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
• Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
• Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
• Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
• Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
• Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
• Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”
• Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
• Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
• Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
• Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
• Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture–education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
• Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
• Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
• Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
• Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
• Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
• Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use [“]united force[“] to solve economic, political or social problems.

One day each year we celebrate our independence. There are 364 other days when we must fiercely defend it, lest it slip away. It is under attack as never before. Let’s get to work on “the Fifth”.