Happy Independence Day!

Ah, the Fourth of July – time to go to a parade, grill a hotdog and watch some fireworks (or light some off, depending). It’s a fun day; it’s summer’s big holiday, after all. I love this holiday with all of it’s red white and blue and down home Americana and patriotism.

But if you have time, take a few minutes today to think about what the day is really about – here’s the first part of the Declaration of Independence (see the document and read the full transcript here):

“. . .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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, 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. . . . “

Powerful words that should hold meaning for us even today, 237 years after they were written.