Friday, July 04, 2003

Happy fourth of July everybody. Now is the day of celebration of our nations founding. It is the day that two hundred and twenty five years ago, a group of men, "rebelious, tenacious, and criminal" men told the soveriegn nation at the time "No thank you sir" and left. Of course you know the rest of the story, at least you better. If you don't, ask your local history teachers about it, they'll clue you in. (I'd say go watch the History Channel, but with the frequency of WWII stuff they play on thier, those that don't know "the rest" would get the impression that history started with the Nazi rise to power and WWII). These men, who were "rebelious, tenacious, and criminal" became some of the most well respect politicians and diplomats in history. And well they should, they created some of the most well thought out and influentional documents in history. The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States of America.

The Declaration is a wonderful document. It's an official breaking of ties with the original soveriegn nation (England). The most inspirational thing contained in the document (in my opinion) isn't the unalienable rights of man, but, and I quote:
"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. "
This is the idea that the people should have full control of the government itself, and if the government isn't working, then change it, fix it, or eradicate it and set up a new one. Not even the Greeks or the Romans had thought of that with thier various democracies and republics. Here is a link to this great document, and I'll continue with this line of thinking tomorrow, writing about The Constitution. (I think everyone should have a copy of both of these documents, but for now here's that link I promised).

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