Independence Day
Editorial

Today, we will sit down for that family picnic or to watch the fireworks with friends. Some of us will dress in red, white and blue to show our patriotism.

But let us take a moment to think of July 4, 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed by the 56 members of the Continental Congress creating a sovereign nation from what were 13 colonies of England.

Two-hundred and thirty-two years ago there were 2.5 million people living in the colonies that stretched from Georgia to what is now Maine (and was then Massachusetts). There are now 304,485,922 people living in the 50 states.

Over the next month those 2.5 million people across the new country heard readings of the words their leaders wrote. The beginning of that document read:

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of 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 People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such forms, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety, and Happiness."

The document ends with:

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."