Independence Day (Dad's lecture)

It is an extraordinary gift to live in a nation where we enjoy many freedoms and are protected by many rights. After reading a biography of Desmond Tutu and his nation's struggle to bring many of these same freedoms and rights to people in South Africa, I think of the great number of nations where there exists little freedom or guarantee of rights. Imagine raising your child in an oppressive, tyrannical nation where your daughter or son has few opportunities to look forward to. It should sadden us that this is the norm for many in our world. The Declaration of Independence is an awesome document that might inspire others as it has inspired many Americans for the past 231 years. Although watching a fireworks display may stir patriotism and thankfulness, it is an important exercise to connect with our past, and rediscover the reason we celebrate. -Joe

"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.--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."