Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Independence Day 2012 (updated)

On a hot summer day, July 4, 1776, to be exact, a group of men met in Philadelphia. Each man signed his own name to a document. As each man signed, he knew either their great venture would be a success or they had just signed their death warrants. If they were not considered traitors by the British before this, they certainly were now.
 
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
The ringing phrases of the document's famous second paragraph are a powerful synthesis of American constitutional and republic-an government theories. All men have a right to liberty as they are by nature equal, which is to say none are inherently superior and deserve to rule or inferior and deserve to be ruled.

Because all are endowed with these rights, the rights are unalienable, which means that they cannot be given up or taken away. And because individuals equally possess these rights, governments derive their just powers from the consent of those governed. Government's purpose is to secure these fundamental rights and, although prudence tells us that governments should not be changed for trivial reasons, the people retain the right to alter or abolish government when it becomes destructive of these ends.
 
My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy! ~Thomas Jefferson
"You see, freedom is very fragile – in fact, only 5% of all the civilized world throughout history has ever lived with the kind of freedoms we enjoy here in America. That 5% share a frightening commonality: when they lose their freedom, that’s it. They never get it back. And many did lose it. No matter how big, no matter how powerful. Do you want to be part of the generation that fell asleep and allowed America to fall? Do you want to be the ones who future generations of frustrated kids being told what car they can and cannot drive, how much soda they can drink, what temperature to set their thermostat at – point to and say ‘they did this!’ ?? I don’t. And I know you don’t either. So let’s commit ourselves to being ever vigilant." Glenn Beck
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” President Ronald Reagan
  [T]hey established these great self-evident truths that … their posterity might look up again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew that battle which their fathers began, so that truth and justice and mercy and all the humane and Christian virtues might not be extinguished from the land … Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines conflicting with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence … let me entreat you to come back … [C]ome back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence." (President Lincoln presented this appeal in 1858 to a crowd in Lewiston, Illinois)



American Independence requires vigilance today

The Declaration of Independence was America’s first foreign policy document. It proclaimed to the world in 1776 our intention to become and remain a separate nation, while also expressing America’s political philosophy and the basic aims of government.
Building upon a rich Anglo-Western tradition that fostered virtues of self-government, the Declaration recognizes the popular sovereignty of the American people — comprised of individuals possessing rights that no government can take away. That is the idea of liberty, and the Declaration says it exists and has existed for all time in all places for all people, in principle. Over time, with great sacrifice and determination, the U.S. constitutional order has been remarkably successful at delivering on the promises of the Declaration for the American people.
The Founders meant to ensure the continuation of self-government at home where self-reliant individuals, effective local governments, and a limited Federal government with enumerated powers guaranteed the people’s exercise of liberty. Abroad the United States was to remain independent, not coerced by foreign powers, and safe from attack. The common defense of the American people and their system of government required a capable military, but the character of America’s role in the world was much more than “boots on the ground”.
After touring the United States in 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville noted that the “principal instrument” of American foreign policy is “freedom.”  He meant that, in the United States, diplomacy is not just something the government does. When American citizens proclaim their faith in their principles and practice it at home they are helping to make their nation’s foreign policy, because their words and actions are a lesson for the world. Just recently, the Chinese dissident and political activist Chen Guangcheng began his time in America with a careful study of the Declaration. Among the countries of the earth, he wanted to escape China in order to come to America.
This July 4th America still stands for freedom, but precariously so. Welfare and entitlement programs strain the federal budget, while sapping the spirit of self-government and the virtues that enable it.
On the international front, expanding international organizations and global governance institutions often try to restrict America’s freedom of action and, at times, are fundamentally hostile to America’s system of government.
These entities, as American legal scholar John Fonte has argued, follow the logic of Progressivism on a transnational scale and are therefore unaccountable to the U.S. Constitution and the sovereignty of the American people. Through a growing matrix of international legal institutions, foreign governments and IGO’s wage “law-fare” against the U.S. seeking to undermine the legitimacy and attractiveness of the American constitutional order in the arena of world politics. This is a dire, albeit not-widely-understood threat to American independence. The most recent example of this trend affects Americans’ second amendment rights: Foreign entities and the U.S. State Department are currently advancing the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty which would affect the use of legally owned firearms within the United States.
The future of our liberties is insecure, as ever. “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction,” Ronald Reagan once said. “We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” Americans have enjoyed a tradition and culture of self-government with its attendant opportunities and risks, but this too is fading away. And yet the stakes are exceedingly high. As George Washington noted, “the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
There are now many decisions to make. The United States Senate is debating ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (also known as the Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST) in which the meaning and practice of U.S. sovereignty is at stake. The House of Representatives is also currently weighing the budget priorities of welfare spending and national defense. And yet U.S. independence abroad will mean very little if Americans at home continue their slide into dependency on government.
America has become and remains an inspiring, albeit imperfect, model of liberty, attracting millions of immigrants eager for the opportunity to pursue happiness. This is a fulfillment of the Declaration and the proper meaning of America’s role in the world— a shining city upon a hill.  This Fourth of July Americans should remember that the struggle of 1776 continues today, both for freedom from government dependency at home and independence from foreign coercion abroad.



President John Adams: 
“You will think me transported with enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means. And that Posterity will triumph in that Days Transaction, even although we should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.”


President Ronald Reagan: 
"My fellow Americans, it falls to us to keep faith with them and all the great Americans of our past. Believe me, if there’s one impression I carry with me after the privilege of holding for 5 1/2 years the office held by Adams and Jefferson and Lincoln, it is this: that the things that unite us — America’s past of which we’re so proud, our hopes and aspirations for the future of the world and this much-loved country — these things far outweigh what little divides us. And so tonight we reaffirm that Jew and gentile, we are one nation under God; that black and white, we are one nation indivisible; that Republican and Democrat, we are all Americans. Tonight, with heart and hand, through whatever trial and travail, we pledge ourselves to each other and to the cause of human freedom, the cause that has given light to this land and hope to the world." 

Much love
PK the Bookeemonster

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