One might wonder why people are gathered at the post office in Glen Arbor on the Fourth of July when it is closed. The story is the same across Leelanau County, in Omena, in Empire, in Lake Leelanau. Then promptly at 10 a.m. the reason is revealed. “When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,” booms a voice. “And to assume among the powers of the earth,” says another. “The separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them,” continues a third. Welcome to the Fourth of July in Leelanau County, where nine people—one at each post office—read aloud the Declaration of Independence.