Best wishes to our American friends on the 242nd anniversary of their disastrous decision to leave the British Empire.
I would like to draw everyone’s attention to the royal reply to the Declaration of Independence and ask our southerly neighbours to soberly assess the consequences of the path not taken.
The British expressed regret at the misguided actions of the American Congress, but announced that the king was still willing to negotiate and to revise those points over which the colonists felt themselves aggrieved. They asked the rebels to “reflect seriously upon their present Condition and Expectations, and to judge for themselves whether it be more consistent with their Honour and Happiness to offer up their Lives as a Sacrifice to the unjust and precarious Cause in which they are engaged, or to return to their Allegiance, accept the Blessings of Peace, and be secured in a free enjoyment of their Liberty and Properties.”
The road not taken led straight to the continuation of slavery for another almost 90 years, genocidal war with native tribes, and a civil war whose effects are still being felt.
It is not too late to come back home, American cousins. The Empire, like the father of the Prodigal Son, awaits your penitent knock on the door.