About Monday, August 23:

Today I got up before sunrise, breathed in the scent of pines as I traversed the mountainside, walked through clouds above the tree line, ate lunch next to a marmot on a mountain summit, gazed upon secluded mountain lakes, and was reminded how volatile Colorado weather is as I got caught in a hail storm at 12,880 ft. Today I remembered how beautiful and complex Earth is.

[Photos coming in a week when I get more reliable internet access.]

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I am in Estes Park, Colorado this week for the Foundation for Economic Education‘s Freedom Academy for high school students. (I know that I haven’t posted on my blog much this summer. I’ve been quite busy. I have a wonderful internship with the Foundation for Economic Education. I am working out of Atlanta with trips to Colorado and New York. More on that in a later post!) The seminar staff all flew in on Friday night, then we did as much prep work as we could in order to take some time to ourselves today before the students show up on Monday morning. Since we are right next to Rocky Mountain National Park, we decided to do a short 3.6 mile (roundtrip) hike in the late morning/early afternoon.

Below are some of my photos from the hike. The Rockies are gorgeous! They are teeming with life and beauty. The hike was excellent- beautiful weather up until the last leg of the hike, cool temperatures, sun, and in one instance in the higher elevation, snow on the ground. I even saw wild cutthroat trout in a few of the mountain streams and lakes! I am coming back here in a month for a hiking trip with a friend of mine and his family. I can’t wait!

Click on the photos to view them at a larger size. Enjoy!

Bear Lake:

Looking down on Bear Lake:

Hallett Peak over Dream Lake:

Water Lily on Bear Lake:

Hallet Peak:

Reflections on Bear Lake:

Mountain Stream:

Storms rolling in over Flattop Mountain and Emerald Lake:

Here are a few shots of me taking two of the above photos. The shots of me were taken by Jason Hughey.

Posted by Chuck Grimmett to nature, photography   
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A few weeks ago I spent a long weekend in Charleston, SC visiting my friend Alex Cothran. I went to Charleston last year for spring break, but Alex showed me around a bunch of places I haven’t seen around the city. I had a great time!

Though I was only there a few days, below are a few of the photos I snapped. Click on the photos to view them at a larger size.

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Read the Declaration today. Print it out and discuss it with friends and family. It is profoundly important. Spend time going through the structure and diction. Each word is important and was not idly chosen––the words written here have power, meaning, and purpose.

Only through a proper understanding of these ideas can one know what it truly means to be a patriot.

The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

IN CONGRESS, 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 the 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.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Posted by Chuck Grimmett to liberty   
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On Friday morning, I started my trip down to Atlanta for my summer internship with the Foundation for Economic Education. I got to my grandparents’ house in Kingston, Tennessee in the early evening and stayed with them for two nights. I had a nice time staying with them, and they took me to a few neat places on Saturday. We went to Ozone Falls and Black Mountain. Here are a few photos of Ozone Falls:
(Click on the photos to view them at a larger size)

I got to the apartment I am staying at for the summer in Sandy Springs, GA this afternoon. It is just north of Atlanta. The apartment is new and spacious, and in a very good location! I am living there with two other FEE guys- one intern and one full time employee (a Hillsdale grad). I am really looking forward to this summer!

Posted by Chuck Grimmett to life, photography   
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The last city I stayed in was Nice, a beautiful city in the on the French Riviera in south-eastern France. It is such a gorgeous place! David and I took an overnight train from Bordeaux and arrived around 8:30 in the morning. The train was an experience… we stayed in a couchette car with four other people and were woke up multiple times during the night by either a shaking train or children with asthema. Anyway, once we arrived we put our stuff at the hotel, freshened up, and bought some pastries and ate them on the edge of the Mediterranean. The rest of that day and the next were devoted to much exploring and eating, then I had to take another overnight train to Paris to fly home.

I hope you enjoy the photos! Click on them to see them at a larger size.

The Promenade des Anglais and the Mediterranean Sea:

Natural rock formations that I climbed out on many times (with a kayaker!)

The harbor and the hillside:

Arches – possibly an old aquaduct?

A small lighthouse/beacon at the edge of the harbor:

Lit walkway on the edge of the sea

Rocky beach, the sea, and the sun: (click to view large!)

Me sitting on the rocks on the edge of the sea (Photo by David):

Rough waters as a storm rolls in:

Entrance to the harbor on a cloudy day:

Thank you for checking out my photos from spring break! I hope you enjoyed them.

Posted by Chuck Grimmett to life, photography   
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