My VIPs for this week are the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Americans celebrated Independence Day last Friday and all weekend, a celebration that will continue for the next year until July 4, 2026 – the 250th anniversary of our national independence.
It is
easy to think of Independence Day as just a national holiday that is celebrated
with barbeques, parades, and fireworks. However, we must remember and teach the
rising generation that we celebrate on July 4th because we are
celebrating our “hard-won independence from Great Britain and the establishment
of our great nation founded on freedom” (Mark Levin).
One way
for us to remember the importance of this day and to teach the rising
generation about its importance is to revisit “the timeless principles outlined
in the document that defined America’s identity and declared her sovereignty.”
Mark Levin shares with Blaze Media key phrases from the Declaration of
Independence and explains them to help us to remember what it means to be
American citizens.
“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 to the separation,”
he reads.
“Why
do they keep talking about the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God? Because these
were men of faith,” he says, noting that even Jefferson and Franklin, who were “deists,”
still “embraced Judeo-Christian values” as well as the philosophies of John
Locke, who declared that “your right to life, your right to be free doesn’t
come from any government” or “from any man” but “from God Almighty.”
“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.”
“In
other words, your natural rights, your unalienable rights belong to you, no
matter what – even if you life in a tyranny because they’re God-given,” Levin
explains.
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among
men, that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it
is the right of the people to alter or 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,”
he continues reading.
Many
today have forgotten that this “is the purpose of government – to secure your
unalienable rights, to provide order and law so you can exercise your free will
and so your voluntary participation in the civil society increases the benefit
of the whole community,” Levin says. And while “we don’t rebel at the drop of a
hat” – as “prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established
should not be changed for light and transient causes” – we will never “acquiesce
to tyranny.”
Levin
reminds that, originally, there was a clause in the Declaration of
Independence condemning slavery, but it was removed to maintain unity among
the colonies, particularly to avoid alienating Southern states where slavery
was entrenched, as the revolution required a united front against Britain.
When the founders signed the Declaration of
Independence, they knew the risk.
“All signed their death warrant because the British wanted to collect every one
of them up and execute them,” says Levin, but they signed anyway, “[putting]
their lives on the line” to make the America we love today a possibility.
“This
is what Independence Day, July 4, is all about.” [Emphasis added.]
This is
what the year-long celebration will be all about – a celebration of the men and
women who brought about the founding of the United States of America and all
those who have defended independence and freedom throughout the 250-year
history of America.
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