Independence Day
Breathes there a soul so dead that these words don’t send a chill through the spine?
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands 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,…
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 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,…
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States;
Read the entire document here.
The parchment is aged and water stained, the ink faded and behind the thick, bullet proof glass it is difficult to discern. And yet — and yet the power of those words have shaken empires to their very roots and given hope to generations. The future they but dimly perceived, we live today. This is what it means to risk it all – in the hope, fear and prayer that the course you are charting will mean a better tomorrow; to know that there is no out, no “Plan B”…
