The Declaration of Independence

[missypea]

A friend of mine (who I've spoken about before) became a mother at a young age, never finished school and while an interesting person just never seemed curious about the world outside of her world.

She went back to school last year and her curiosity would rival that of a kitten. She gave me a call last week and said:

Do you know what the Declaration of Independence is?

....ummm, yeah.

Have you read it?

....yeah, but it's been years.

In a really excited voice she said:

Do you know it says this?
Do you know it says that?

She was so energized and engaged I decided that I needed to give it another read. How long has it been since you read it?

Here's the link:

The Declaration of Independence - TEXT

 

[ARealConservative]

the DoI was essentially a private letter to the king. This country has never lived up to the grand ideals espoused in that letter and never will unless humanity evolves into something much greater then it currently is.

 

[Harshaw]

There's not all that much "principle" stated in it, and that which is is very, very broad.

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 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.

Whether or not we've "lived up" to it depends on what you think it means, and there are those who have quite wild ideas about that, indeed.

 

[Arch Enemy]

the DoI was essentially a private letter to the king. This country has never lived up to the grand ideals espoused in that letter and never will unless humanity evolves into something much greater then it currently is.

I think we have to understand that this was a letter that once signed was the equivalent to signing one's name to Death, as these men became criminals and could have been executed at any time.

That these were not your ordinary run-of-the-mill men. Jefferson could have lived a much comfortable life without having any part of the Continental Congress, as could most others.

 

[American]

There's not all that much "principle" stated in it, and that which is is very, very broad.



Whether or not we've "lived up" to it depends on what you think it means, and there are those who have quite wild ideas about that, indeed.

And quite wrong ideas too.