History 101: Celebrating Independence, Exploring a Declaration

 
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.

I recently attended a workshop in which this passage was put onto the overhead screen.  Without any discussion or introduction, the attendees were asked to rewrite the statement in everyday terms.  I was truly surprised and utterly dismayed by how many of the well-educated attendees could not only NOT restate the meaning of this passage, but could also NOT identify from where it came.  It turns out, they were not, in fact, in the minority.  In one survey, over 80 percent of Americans could not identify that passage.

Can you?

Perhaps this next paragraph will help:

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.

Did you correctly identify the above paragraphs as the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence penned by Thomas Jefferson and resolved in the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776?  (It was not  officially signed until August 2, 1776).

Whether or not the preceding paragraphs were familiar to you, as we celebrate the birth of our nation this July 4th, why not take a few moments to read through the Declaration of Independence.  This article actually makes it relatively easy to do so.

If you have a few more minutes, you may find this site interesting as well.  Here you’ll find short biographies of all 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence.  The well-known names:  Hancock, J. Adams, Jefferson, as well as many lesser known names.