Local reflects on the ‘Declaration’
By Marty Richman
Happy Birthday, USA! In honor of our Independence Day, I want to
pay homage once more to the written expression that forms the basis
of our freedoms
– the Declaration of Independence. I have expressed these ideas
before, but they are worth repeating.
Local reflects on the ‘Declaration’
By Marty Richman
Happy Birthday, USA! In honor of our Independence Day, I want to pay homage once more to the written expression that forms the basis of our freedoms – the Declaration of Independence. I have expressed these ideas before, but they are worth repeating.
Unlike the Constitution of the United States, the Declaration of Independence has no legal authority; however, to my mind it is the more important document because the Declaration supplies the critical foundation upon which the fundamentals of the Constitution are built.
Prior to the Declaration, humans had been struggling for thousands of years to define the relationship between individuals and rulers. At times those rulers were monarchies, sometimes they were conquerors, but they were also early democracies that took hold in places such as Athens around 500 BC. We often forget that democracy is not just a modern concept. The problem is that democracy, alone, does not define freedom. There are many cases where people willingly and democratically gave up their freedoms or, more often, took the freedoms from others.
Something more than democracy was required, it was an overriding philosophy that would put everything in its place and that was, and still is, the genius of “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America” – commonly known as the Declaration of Independence.
The authors of the Declaration reached a point where they thought a list of grievances detailing why they wanted to be independent was not sufficient. They believed that an underpinning was critical; this would form a basic framework around which their arguments could be built and sustained. Through their intellect, passion, beliefs, faults and compromises they penned the finest description of the relationship between individuals and government ever written and it remains so to this day. It was the nation’s birthday, but they gave us the gift that keeps on giving. The essence of these great ideas reside in just a few simple sentences: “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.”
That is it, the simple and essential concepts; the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness belong to the people, the government’s function is to secure those rights and the government derives its powers from the consent of the governed.
Freedom is not easy – it is very difficult. The easy way is to surrender your freedom and give others the authority and responsibility to make all your decisions and then give them all the credit for success and all the blame for failure. But be warned, Lord Acton’s observation still holds true, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
One cannot surrender their freedom – and avoid all its difficulties – and still enjoy the benefits of being free. Neither can one take the freedom from others and still feel free. Freedom fuels the human spirit; it is a rough and uncomfortable road, but history has shown that the rewards of freedom are well worth the difficult trip.
