It is american independance Day!

[Pete J.]

On the day that we celebrate the founding of the United States of America, I love to ask this question. How many of you can quote the first sentence of the declaration of independence?? Here is a hint--- It ain't "We the people..." . Harry, I am fairly sure you know this and I know my kids know it, because I drilled it into them from a young age. Be honest. If you don't know, that's ok because a lot of people don't realize that "We the People" is the preamble to the constitution and not the Declaration of Independence.

[Ace-Garageguy]

The first sentence starts "When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds that have connected them with another..."

The second paragraph starts with the more widely immediately recognized "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..."

It continues (yes, I had to look it up):

"...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 to 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 shown 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 fine ideals. So very sad the reality hasn't always fully lived up to them.

Edited July 4, 2015 by Ace-Garageguy

[chunkypeanutbutter]

I knew "We hold these truths to be self-evident."

[Pete J.]

Bill, lofty ideals indeed. Especially if you consider the times in which they were written. A generational upper elite ruling class of kings and princes with power passed from generation to generation was the norm and ran almost the entire world. Power was transferred by bloodshed and intrigue, not a measured vote of the ruled. We as a people have never met those ideals but the important point is that we still strive for them. They are the guiding light. I am sure that in the minds of some we will never get there, but we are organized so that the periodic overthrow of our government happens in an orderly organized fashion with the direct voice of the people being involved. That voice is sometimes subverted or ignored but it is still always there for both the majority and as well as all the minorities, no matter how odd or radical they may be. We all have our moment to speak and to disagree with others. Something that happens in few countries the size of this one.