The July 4th holiday is nearly upon us, and many Americans are looking forward to a long holiday weekend starting next Thursday (some started Friday). During that long weekend, why not take five minutes and expand your citizenship IQ regarding what all the fuss was really all about 248 years ago that required a Declaration of Independence?
Be honest, have you ever actually read your nation’s foundational document? It’s only 1,320 words in length (about three pages ) and offers an enlightening list of the many grievances that drove the Founders to take the existential risk of declaring independence from the greatest power on the planet at that time.
The signers were the ultimate rebels and took risks that today’s protesters will never face to redress grievances that none of us have experienced. (e.g. soldiers quartered in your home against your will; denial of jury trial, and the most famous one: taxation without representation). They rebelled against the mightiest nation in the world at that time at the literal risk of their lives. As Benjamin Franklin, one of the signers, remarked at the time of the irrevocable choice they had just made, “We must all hang together or most assuredly, we will all hang separately.
Take five minutes to study one of the greatest documents ever written, and one which created in large measure the world you live in. You may be surprised what’s in it…and you’ll probably be one of the few Americans who’ve read it.
It’s what makes us Americans. It’s America 101…please take the course. Maybe a wider reading of this would bring us all closer together
Please share this with the young people in your life. Chances are that if you haven’t read it, they haven’t read it.
