Before you let your children go and shoot off all those fireworks again this year - the sales of which may actually help the Chinese government fund the building of some much bigger rockets and fireworks aimed at U.S. cities - you ought to make your children sit down and listen while you read to them from the Declaration of Independence which was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776. After all, it is the reason for our celebration.
If you don’t have a copy? You can find one at www.archives.gov, along with much other instructionalinformation about the document which gave birth to a new nation.
It begins like this: IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
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 whichimpel 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 lightand 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. 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 of Great Britain 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....
While you’re talking to your kids about the Declaration of Independence, you might also tell them that it took great courage for the Continental Congress and the American Colonies to declare independence from the rule of Great Britain. They were rebelling against the world power of that day.
Those fifty-six men who signed the Declaration risked the loss of family, property and life in the battles to come. They knew, too, if their efforts failed, they could be hanged as traitors. Many lost homes and property during the war. Some were captured and imprisoned, and in a few cases wives and family members were captured and mistreated. And more than 4,000 American soldiers died to preserve America’s independence.
The freedom and national heritage which we celebrate this 4th of July cost our forefathers dearly, to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands more who died in later wars to defend our nation and the freedoms we still enjoy.
How many of us are willing to risk the loss of jobs, property and life itself to stand up for what is right and to defend our nation and our freedoms from enemies without and within?
How many of us are willing to even give up a little time on this holiday to teach our kids what it is that we commemorate?
So, celebrate the 4th. Enjoy the fireworks. But remember why it is that we observe this special day!
Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Decatur Herald and the Gentry Courier-Journal. He may be reached by e-mail at rmoll @ nwaonline .com.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 06/30/2010