July Fourth is much more than BBQs and beer. It celebrates the birth of our nation, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, a statement of why our first patriots felt compelled to rebel against their king. Every American would do well to read it aloud at home and in their public spaces on this day — and to honor its contents. Some of the complaints sound familiar to our ears:
• [the King] “has obstructed the administration of Justice;”
• he has “affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power;”•
• he is “cutting off our trade with all parts of the world” and “imposing taxes without our consent;”
• he is “depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury” and is “transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences;”
• he is “altering fundamentally the forms of our governments;”
• “he has excited domestic insurrections amongst us.”
They declare, “A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”
By this declaration, Americans asserted their unwillingness to be serfs or vassals to an unaccountable ruler, but free people who demand their leaders be answerable to them and to the laws they enact. Let us honor the true meaning of this national holiday.
Wendy Orley
Highlands Ranch