Three Great American Ideas
Go read what Maggie Gallagher wrote.
Rights do not come from the government. The government only exists because we allow it to. Those are the ideas - the ideals - that define America.
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, 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 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. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Are we perfect? Oh no, we are not. But we are a darn sight better than others have been - and for a longer time, as Gallagher points out.
Civilization, History | Gaius Wednesday, 2 July , 2008
By martian, Thursday, 3 July , 2008 @ 8:50 am
As has been said before, democracy is the absolute worst form of government in the world - except for all the rest. Of course we are not perfect - not as a nation or as people - and we never will be as long as we are human. Let’s face it, we’re a failable race. However, in the creation of the United States of America and in the preservation of that nation for over 200 years, we as a people have managed to build a nation that, as Ronald Reagan put it, is a shining beacon for the rest of the world.
I would submit that what makes us that shining beacon is not perfection. What does so is the fact that we know and acknowledge that we are not perfect but do so with the determination to contimually improve, to make our nation better, to become more moral and more just as a nation and a people. To those for whom the United States is the source of all evil in the world I say you are wrong, tragically wrong, because it blinds you to the possibility of what the future can hold for all Americans, for the generations to come, and as an example of what true freedom can be for the rest of the world.
We should celebrate our Independence Day by acknowledging the sheer magnitude of what our founders accomplished and the clear determination to continue to strive to improve so that shining beacon never fades.
By Don L, Friday, 4 July , 2008 @ 10:03 am
I can never read nor teach that first paragraph without thinking how it applies to the south’s right to secede without being attacked by the north. And no,I’m not a disgruntled rebel…i’m a damned Yankee.