“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
Thomas Paine
From rural communities to large cities to the nation’s Capital politicians, civic leaders and everyday Americans are making breathtaking plans to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of our Republic. In some locations all, or more likely part, of the Declaration may actually be read to modest audiences who will give only passing thoughts to its language or significance.
Tens of millions taxpayer dollars will be committed to producing grandiose fireworks and laser displays; hiring pop singers to entertain; purchasing decorations to adorn local streets and building facades; parading local politicians and groups of veterans, scouts, and bands through towns or cities; and at the White House hosting Ultimate Fighting matches and shamelessly peddling “Trump 250th Anniversary Golden Badges” featuring the president’s portrait.
The latter is not altogether surprising given when asked by ABC’s Terry Moran about the meaning of a displayed copy of the Declaration hanging in the Oval Office, President Trump replied, “Well, it means exactly what it says, it’s a declaration. A declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot. And it’s something very special to our country.”
Without a clue as to what he was saying, it does mean “exactly what it says” and it is “special to our country.” However, the document was anything resembling a statement of “unity and love and respect.”
Despite its still unfulfilled aspirations America’s Declaration of Independence is possibly the most transformative proclamation in the history of mankind.
Its preamble;
• Defined principles of natural law that “all men are created equal” and who are “endowed by their Creator (without defining the term as Christian, Jewish or even deist) with certain unalienable Rights” among them, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.
• Declared “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
• And advocated while “Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes … 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”
Following the preamble, more than half of the Declaration’s text details twenty-seven grievances the Colonies and their citizens had against the British King, providing their justifications for declaring independence from the British Empire. Historians have suggested some of those complaints were exaggerated or simply not true … while some resonate as being able to be directed toward today’s federal government.
Despite having professions ranging from doctors to lawyers to farmers and coming from often diverse geographic, economic, cultural and political sections of the Colonies, in a spirit of compromise for the benefit and general welfare of their citizens, members of the Second Continental Congress as “Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled,” declared “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.”
Fully understanding the personal exposures and risks they were taking, the fifty-six men who adopted (on July 4, 1776) and signed (on August 2, 1776 or later) the Declaration agreed to “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor;” with many subsequently suffering severe consequences including imprisonment, the destruction of homes, and loss of wealth. While none were executed, nine died from hardships and wounds during the Revolutionary War.
Americans should take immense pride in the Declaration and celebrate its having provided the basis for the Republic which emerged after a bloody war and its representative democracy enshrined in the Constitution eleven years later and which has endured as a model of the rest of the world for the past two and one-half centuries.
Without providing any context about the times in which the Declaration was adopted, its revolutionary aspirations of equality and human rights, recognition governments are established solely to protect those rights not limit them, and the demonstrated personal and political courage of elected representatives to prioritize country and constituents above personal goals even in the face of self-sacrifice … July 4th celebrations become mere form over substance … just another holiday punctuated with fireworks and halftime-like celebrity performances. The significance of the Declaration becoming as meaningless to Americans as the words to the Pledge of Allegiance when mechanically recited on a daily basis by school children or the National Anthem when perfunctorily played before most sporting events.
Marian Wright Edelman noted, “The Declaration of Independence was always our vision of who we wanted to be, our ideal of freedom and justice, how we were going to be different, and what the American experiment was going to be about.” Perhaps this year more emphasis should be placed on how we can strive to achieve that vision than on pageantry, barbaric cage fighting or promoting the likeness of a narcissistic president.
However, I doubt it will!
