It has been two hundred twenty-five years since a handful of men put their signatures on a piece of paper that we know today as the Declaration of Independence, the document that gave birth to the United States of America. Since 1776, the world has seen constant change, shifts in boundaries and shifts in attitudes, revolutions in technology, travel and to be sure, warfare.

We live in what we must assume to be the modern age, our attention consumed by our immediate surroundings, our immediate needs, the efforts required to simply keep up with extraordinary change. But if we have learned anything during the last two hundred twenty-five years, it is that some things have not changed at all. Throughout the world there are still wars, national boundaries are still fragile, cultures, even our own, are subject to changes in attitude, in what we tolerate and define as right and wrong. But if we care anything of our own history, we must understand that in this country, there is one constant, and if we are fortunate, it will never change. We are a culture defined by the integrity, decency and independence of its people.

The story of colonial America's fight for independence from Great Britain is much more than a dry study of politics, of the heavy handed policies of King George III toward a people emerging into their own identity. It is the story of courage, of selflessness, of men and women who dared to speak out, to protest unwise and oppressive acts by their mother country. When the protests fell on deaf ears, they would set aside their own enormous differences, joining together in a Continental Congress, combining thirteen colonies into one voice, and finally, one document, men who would literally risk their necks by standing up to the greatest political and military power in the world.

We all know the names. No student escapes the study of George Washington, or the stories of characters who seem to be more myth than real: Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, Nathan Hale. In some classrooms, the studies go deeper, students learning of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and some might recall more than the fact that both were Presidents of the United States. They were in fact, some of the most radical revolutionaries of their time.

In this modern age, we have been taught to be cynical. Few regard government as a profession worthy of deep respect. Few heroes emerge from the sordid chaos of our political elections. In the age of push-button warfare, we rarely hear of the battlefield hero, the soldier who risks himself to save his comrades. The last generation of American soldiers who came home to a pure hero's welcome fought in the 1940's. And their number grows fewer each day. Now, if one asks teenagers who their heroes are, one hears a litany of pop culture icons, sports and rock stars.

And the cynicism has deepened. It has become fashionable in Hollywood and in the media to portray those famous names from our past in an unflattering light, to tear down or trivialize the accomplishment, replacing the mantle of the hero with the sensational and the shameful. The cynicism has led many to believe that the only connection Americans can make to their own Founders is by exposing their most salacious flaws, as though this is their only relevance to our modern time. I most adamantly disagree. That these characters were not perfect icons is testament to their humanity, which makes their story and their accomplishments all the more remarkable. It is too easy to pass judgment with the crystal clarity of hindsight, to ignore that era in which these people lived. What cannot be ignored is that in a time of absolute chaos and crisis, when their very survival as a people was threatened, they rose to the occasion, and left a mark that did much more than establish a new nation. They changed the history of the world.

As I grew to know the characters in "Rise to Rebellion", to speak for them, to move into their minds, and bring their story to the written page, I felt a sense of fascination, of discovery, of new respect. I set out not to revise history, nor to embellish myth. The story was to be honest, as told by the characters themselves, through their own writings, accounts recorded by those who were there. I had experienced enough of my own cynicism to wonder if there would be much of a story to tell, that if these characters were truly worthy of the lofty perch on which my ancestors had placed them. My discovery was delightful surprise. The story of our Founding Fathers is not simply about blind patriotism, but about bravery, spirit and heroism. But most importantly, this is the story of the people who opened the pathway to our own future. And so, it is the story of us.