For many of us the beach is a symbol of freedom. We throw off the chains of our office cubicle, step briefly away from household chores, and relax in whatever way we choose.
But it wasn’t always this way.
The beach used to be a place for work. It was for rough and briny fishermen and women. It was for barges and cargo ships hauling sugar, molasses, and livestock. It was the edge of a wilderness plagued by tempests, and unimaginable sea monsters.
But because of three things primarily, an engine of great wealth was created that has given us enough free time and enough disposable income that the beach has become a place of relaxation, a place of joy and pleasure and leisure.
The three things:
- The Declaration of Independence
- The United States Constitution
- A people with a work ethic and a willingness to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to establish and fight for the right to be free and independent.
Above is a beach on Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas, 70 miles west of Key West. What you are seeing in the photo is a homemade raft, launched from an unfree land. Freedom was its destination. I don’t know what happened to the people on the raft, but it remains a testament to the pull of freedom.
They were looking for a beach–not just any beach, but a beach in the United States of America. Finding a U. S. beach meant finding freedom.
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…
