Independence Day

I'm currently sitting at home watching fireworks on TV and listening to fireworks which are being shot off just south of here. (Unfortunately, I can't actually see the fireworks being shot off south of here...)

I've spent some time, today, trying to figure out what to write on here. My initial thought was pretty easy. I thought I'd pull up the text of the Declaration of Independence and post it, here. But... ya know... the Declaration is kinda long. (You can find the full text on the National Archives website, here.)

Okay, yes, for what it did, it's really pretty short and to the point. After all, within the text of one piece of parchment, the Founding Fathers, representing their thirteen colonies, basically said that they weren't going to put up with England's rule any more.

Have you ever thought about the fact that we celebrate the day when we declared our independence, but not the day we actually gained it? I mean... That document basically simply fanned the flames of a war which had been started in the previous year.

The Declaration of Independence didn't create a new government. It didn't create a new country. It didn't even say that the thirteen colonies would stick together for the long haul. It simply said "We won't put up with what's going on."

As such, the part of the Declaration we all seem to remember is this:

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.

And, well, there's good reason for that. After all, that's kind of a massive number of "beliefs" to hold all in one sentence.

If you go on to read the entire Declaration, it's pretty eye-opening. (Remember, it's here.) There are a lot of lines in it which seem to still resonate with the current state of the world. And, yes, there are a few that really probably ought to be forgotten. (Although not in the current "Let's rewrite the history books" way that Texas is currently using to modify their history books.)

But, as with so many people, I'm drawn to that one stand-out sentence, and its promise of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." That was pretty major 234 years ago. Heck. As we've discussed recently, that's still a pretty contentious point for a lot of people in 2010. There's a lot of people who don't think everyone deserves an equal shot at pursuing happiness.

For today, though, I think I'm going to listen to the rumble of the fireworks and be happy that, more than two centuries ago, a group of people stood up, spoke up, and declared their intentions. Here's hoping that, someday soon, we can finally make their dreams come true.