IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

This is how the Declaration of Independence starts.  This is the pivotal event that marks the reason for celebration today.  The signers of this document pledged more than just their signatures to this document.  By signing it, they pledged their entire lives and property to their beliefs.

By their willingness to give everything they had for their values, a new nation was born.

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.

The crafting of this document was not like circulating a petition, or signing on for a voter initiative in modern society.  The signers of the Declaration were openly and defiantly challenging the government of their day, and declaring that their rights were not granted from their government, but derived from Natural Law.  Our rights are God-given.

Does revolutionary blood course through your veins?  Do you believe, as I do, that men (and women) have rights by virtue of their Creator, and that these rights exist whether written down in documents like the Declaration, or the Bill of Rights, or not?

As we sit back with our beverage of choice, enjoying barbecue, or a fireworks show, please join me in thanking our fore-fathers for giving us our separate and equal station among all the peoples of the world.

God Bless America!

Reference:

The National Archives: The Declaration of Independence