The Pecan Park Eagle

“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.”

– excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, Signed by Our Founding Fathers, July 4, 1776.

The Declaration of Independence means as much as we, the people, give it deliberate thought, firm conclusion, and committed action.

Read it for yourself and think about it on your own for a while during this special day in our nation’s history. What does it mean to you today in light of all we have endured and overcome in the past 235 years of America’s life? Are these familiar sections of the document still living words and ideas that mean something to us in our everyday lives? Or are they more like the token, memorized expressions of mindless salute we all give on cue to all those grand aspirations that we never really treat in the trenches of our personal lives as having much to do with our ordinary struggles?

Ask yourselves: What can we all do in 2011 to better live the words that were at the heart of why we celebrate this day in the first place?

Happy Independence Day, Everybody!