As we approach another 4th of July, I can’t think of a more appropriate endeavor than for each of us to read our Declaration of Independence. It, along with our Constitution, the Magna Carta and the Bible, is one of the most important documents ever written.
If you take yourself back to the 18th century and understand the events that forced a disparate group of thirteen colonies to join together and declare their independence from a despotic and distant government, you will understand why today, more than at any time since the birth of our nation, the words of this 233 year old document still ring true.
“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.”
Liberty is not defined by how many tv sets you have, or how much porn you can download from the Internet. Freedom is not defined by how many tattoos or body piercings you have. Those two words have a much deeper meaning. For without either, our future would indeed be bleak. History has shown the evil of unlimited power.
Imagine a government telling you where to live, what to read, where you can work, if you can go to school, what you can study, what you can eat, etc., etc., etc.
Can’t imagine? Well, you don’t have to. Just look around. It’s already happening. Unless you’re rich, you’re children are forced to go to public schools to be indoctrinated instead of educated. If you’re poor, you’re forced to live in crime-infested, government-subsidized housing. In some cities, the amount of fat and sugar in foods is being regulated.
And the thought police are not far behind. With the passage of the Hate Crimes Bill, it will be a crime to speak negatively about homosexuals, abortion doctors or maybe politicians.
Our government has become the monster we always feared. But as the hero of the left, Franklin D. Roosevelt, said so correctly: “The only thing we have to fear is, fear itself.”
Don’t be afraid. Instead, make them fear you. Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of tyrants more than the truth.
On the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1926, President Calvin Coolidge said very eloquently: “If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.”
Maybe Silent Cal was onto something.
