We Hold These Truths... (Happy Birthday USA!)

...to be self evident that all men (people) 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...

2nd paragraph of the Declaration of Independence (well, it wasn't written in paragraphs, but if it were, this would be the second paragraph). I hope you all know these words well. We should spend every 4th of July reviewing them and checking to see if those ideals are currently in place.

This is not a thread to talk about the ways that we are or are not living up to these foundations, just a thread to say happy birthday to the greatest and (arguably) still most successful experiment in self government ever attempted. May we keep it going another couple hundred years please! And may we continue to get closer and closer to these ideals.

Brilliant!

 

Second!!!

 

Just exercising some unalienable rights.

Great post, Chris.

 

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness exemplified right there, @mike!



BTW - I LOVE that them there founding fathers argued over "happiness" and landed on the idea that as far as governments are concerned, laws (and the execution and interpretation of laws) should help make it possible for us to PURSUE happiness, but it is not the government's responsibility to make sure we ACHIEVE happiness.

Word!

 

I was in a classroom one day, and the Professor stated Thomas Jefferson’s wife persuaded him to change “pursuit of property” to “pursuit of happiness,” and the rest is history. I don’t know for sure if it is true because I wasn’t there. I’m just going by what someone else told me. That tidbit was poignant enough for me to retain 20 years after I heard it, and it doesn’t seem outa place; but again, I wasn’t there so I don’t know what that place was like other than what someone else told me.

 

Maybe her motivation was Sally Hemings.....

 

Were those set off intentionally?


I had to laugh about the organizer comment at the Maryland show where the fireworks all went off accidentally during setup. Cancelling the show out of an abundance of caution. I think they meant ...lack of abundance of fireworks.

 

Yeah, San Clemente Pier has viewed from the state park.