If it has been a while since you’ve read it, take time to read the Declaration of Independence, which appears on our Opinion pages today. Reflect upon the words of our nation’s founders as they made their case for human rights and freedom.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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23 Comments
Thanks, Phillip. I keep a shortcut on my desktop for both the Declaration and the Constitution, but it never hurts to read through both again.
Yeah, thanks Phillip. The Declaration should be required annual reading for all members of the executive branch, congresspersons and judges. Then they should be tested on their understanding of its contents.
Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were extremely unpopular amoung the population. Most of everybody didn’t want to go to war against England. They wanted security much more than freedom. Both documents were not written based upon the will of the people, but of men with conscience and a love of freedom. Even the Constitution was done in complete secret.
Now-a-days, something like that wouldn’t be stand for. So I’m glad it happen when it did and that the brilliant men who written and believed in those documents fought for it.
Happy Birthday America! Let Freedom Ring!
Phillip, I keep a printed copy of the Constitution handy. Now the Declaration is a good document for Americans to live by, and I won’t argue with a word in it, but it’s the Constitution that is supposed to have the force of law behind it.
E. J. Dionne Jr.:
You can be certain that on this, as on every July 4th, patriotic oratory will flow as well from liberals declaring their love of flag, country and the Declaration of Independence.
Many will speak of how our constitutional republic is to be revered especially for its guarantees of liberty and justice for all and — hint, hint — limits on the powers of overreaching monarchs.
But the progressive and the reformer have a problem with what passes for unadulterated patriotism. By nature, the reformer is bound to insist that the country, however glorious, is not a perfect place, that it is capable of doing wrong as well as right.
snip
Most reformers guard their patriotic credentials by moving quickly to the next logical step: that the true genius of America has always been its capacity for self-correction.
I’d assert that this is a better argument for patriotism than any effort to pretend that the Almighty has marked us as the world’s first flawless nation.
Agreed, fmgrl. The only way to correct our problems is to admit they exist in the first place. That’s what has made our country great, the willingness to evolve into something better. When we see ourself as flawless, then we’ve veered off the correct path.
Agreed, KFG. If people would realize God has nothing to do with a nation and its growth, people might be ready to take the next step and create something workable for all people.
The patriotic fervor practiced by people one day a year is quite unsettling. The next day they’re back to road rage, SUVs, trashing the environment and sending soldiers to Iraq for some pointless war for oil.
The fanaticism shown by the religious right turns more people off to religion than it ever does in spreading it. One look at what those people are willing to do in the name of God makes one wonder if their God has any common sense at all. I know the God I believe in wants me to be understanding, forgiving and true to my beliefs. He says nothing about condemning a political party, its members, Joe Muslim, Frank Jew, Harry Black, Jane White, Jose Brown, Rose Christian, Mary Communist, Gary Gay, Lisa Lesbian, and on and on. The Religious right seems to hate everybody and everything that doesn’t subscribe to its convoluted way of thinking: not very American if you ask me.
Have a great, safe and enjoyable Forth, people.
OK, Walker I’ll bite. Who is the God that you believe in? Is your God the God of the Bible, or the Koran, or one custom made with the attributes that you especially like?
Is it your God’s will that you paint with a broad brush all conservative Christians as haters? Sounds like your God, or you, hates them. On one hand you exalt yourself for being understanding and forgiving, while you stick the knife in those with whom you don’t agree with the other.
You say that your God “wants me to be understanding, forgiving and true to my beliefs”. Hey, that sounds just like the One that I believe in.
Perhaps we should pay attention.
It is interesting to note that July 4 isn’t really our day of independence. The continental congress voted on July 2 in favor of independence. However, signing of the written declaration didn’t occur until July 4 as the congress was haggling over some details of wording, the removal of which was very disturbing to Jefferson. The British in England didn’t find out about the declaration until October 17 of the same year. By the way, someone else commented that the ‘people’ didn’t like the fact that we declared independence. This is untrue. There were some who didn’t want the split, but most of them were wealthy property and business owners who feared such a split would hurt business. In fact, many of these same men profited greatly from the war since inflation ran amock and caused the price of wartime necessaties to skyrocket. But the majority of the working class were in favor of the war for independence.
“Christians” feel like they’re being persecuted by those they see as “non believers”.The rest of us feel like we’re being persecuted by the Christians.Can we all just get over ourselves before this country splits 2 or 3 ways?
Outlander, if you understood at all what I wrote, you wouldn’t have had the need to write what you did. Evidently, you didn’t, can’t or won’t understand it.
I did not condemn anybody. I simply stated what anybody with a thinking mind can figure out for themselves. If you want to argue the point, do so with someone else. I’m not interested.
Oh, I understood quite well Walker.
Have a Happy 4th and may God continue to bless America.
A GREAT post from kfg….some attagirls….and Outlander wants to quarrel.
I think ya made kfgs point Out.
JM Walker,
I think the truth should be told in a more loving way sometimes, but it is the truth no less.
Your blatant distortion on the “religious right” is not any worse than what you accuse them of.
Where is your understanding?
Any day you want to have a discussion on the Bible, God, Jesus teachings, and Christianity in general you let me know.
I consider myself to be part of the “religious right” or “Christian fundamentalists” or “Conservative Christian”
If you wish to discuss in detail what biblical things you disagree with them on, I am game.
Lets have a real discussion instead of the petty labeling and generalizations.
And Nathan weighs in and proves kfg’s point further.
Having read and understood the times that led to the Declaration of Independence, with tongue in cheek, I felt it somewhat necessary to, with due respect to those who drafted the original document, change a few words to update their immortal expressions to a more modern time. Thusly, on this fine 4th of July, feeling very patriotic but somewhat pissed off, I humbly submit the modern version of the Declaration of Independence:
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, (unless we can call them enemy combatants and put them in prison without representation) 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,(and their unjust powers to tax, seize land and property, search records without court orders, and generally spy on citizens who may or may not be ‘terrorists’) — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the responsibility of the current Government to declare that we are ‘fighting terrorism’, and to proclaim that “if you are not for us you are against us!”, 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 of their base of power. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; however, Money and Power can dictate changes on a moment’s notice (and sometimes without notice!) Accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are abolishing the forms to which they see as ‘obstructionist’.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 foreign, sovereign Government, and to provide new Guards for the future security and prosperity of big oil and big business.Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King George is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them, or declared himself exempt from them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, as these people have relinquished the right of Representation in the Legislature by voting rubberstamp Republicans into the majority of both the House and Senate.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has intimidated, harassed, and lied to Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with mostly hollow speeches his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has continued for a long time, after such dissolutions, to stonewall and deny these abuses, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; encourageing their migrations hither, and repressing the conditions within the Land.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by appointing his right wing cronies to established Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people.
He has sent out from among us, in times of peace, our National Guard, our own sons and daughters, to fight for big oil in foreign lands.
He has affected to render the Military dependant upon civilian contractors who supply both military hardware and support.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For sending large bodies of armed troops from us to fight ‘terrorists’:
For failing to protect them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the ‘terrorists’:
For allowing the offshoring of our jobs to all parts of the world, while our economy, through an ever growing deficit, is handed to those foreign governments:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving, in many cases, of the benefit of timely Trial by Jury:
For transporting those in custody beyond Seas to different contries to keep them from coming to trial:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in states, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these states.
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us poor and unworthy of a government that benefits us.
He has allowed our seas to ravage our coasts, destroy our towns, and take the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign corporations to control our ports, the end being to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens to bear witness against their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by his Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the penniless of the Southern countries, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all good paying jobs.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over them. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, tell them that they follow Tony Blair to their own destruction because he is continually sucking up to King George, though they be, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the people of the United States of America, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that as Free and Independent States, have full Power to levy taxes, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
And I thought I wasted to much of my time on the blog…
Well, Nathan, it was either this or play some silly online game. At least I have to engage my brain here. : )
Nathan,What I wrote was a bit tongue in cheek, but I do not believe God, in any form, has anything to do with this country, other than we think he does. This country professes to be “under God”, yet it is supporting a war, which in my opinion, is wrong to start with. I seriously doubt God, again, in any form, would support such a war.
I do not pretend to know the mind of God, however, I can’t picture Him supporting the killing of people in any way. I do not remember reading in the bible of God okaying killing people, in fact just the opposite.
I do remember reading in the bible that God, after the great flood, told Moses and his people that he was on his own, and that God would not interfere in the affairs of man again. So, IMHO, using Gods name in supporting the war in Iraq, or any other war for that matter, is blasphamy and a cop out. Which, again, IMHO, puts the religious right on the wrong track.
Blaming God for floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts, or rains, good weather or any other natural phenonenom, is just plain wrong. God had nothing to do with it. There are miracles that do happen to individuals, but they are few and far between.
God has nothing to do with whether this country makes or doesn’t make it. That job is up to us, each individual in this country. And we do that at the voting booth. The faster we learn that, the faster we can start relying on ourselves to right the wrongs done by this administration, and get on with making this country great. And that is just my opinion.
And a good one at that.
Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were extremely unpopular amoung the population. Most of everybody didn’t want to go to war against England. They wanted security much more than freedom. Both documents were not written based upon the will of the people, but of men with conscience and a love of freedom. Even the Constitution was done in complete secret.
Joe…JOe…Joe, how is the rewriting going?
I consider myself to be part of the “religious right” or “Christian fundamentalists” or “Conservative Christian”
No shit?
Always good to reaffirm that goddamned piece of paper that your President wipes his ass with daily.