July 4, 1776 - Change We Can Believe In

“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds 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 which impel 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 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 has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government.”

So starts the document we celebrate each July fourth. Have you ever read it for yourself? A majority of the body of this Declaration lists specific grievances about which the Representatives of the Colonies had repeatedly petitioned the established government. The response from the King had been only greater tyranny. So fifty-six brave and bold men, “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,” signed their names and pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to bring about the change that they believed in. This was their duty. Not a plot to gain political power or great personal riches. If only we had real leaders and statesmen like that today.

I can only imagine what these Founding Fathers would have to say about the current tyranny we now live under. What would their response be to a government that takes over private companies, that allows property to be seized before a trial in which guilt has been proved, that passes legislation in the middle of the night which hasn’t even been read? Governments are instituted among men to secure our unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Not to erode or strip those rights away. Our present day government seems to have more in common with that of the King of England from 1776 than it does to the one established in our Constitution.

"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." Thomas Jefferson

"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." George Washington

“A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicity.” Thomas Jefferson

“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Thomas Jefferson

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
Thomas Jefferson


Know what you celebrate this July Fourth. Understand how this Nation was brought into being and the cost to those who made it happen. Remember, as Thomas Jefferson says, that lethargy is “the forerunner of death to the public liberty.” Don’t just light a sparkler, reignite the fire of Liberty!