American Views Abroad

 
Today is America's 230th birthday, and on this occasion I wanted to write down what that means to me. The Fourth of July in 1776 is the day that America declared itself a nation with these words beginning the Declaration of Independence:

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.

I find these words to be highly inspirational. I've always been proud to be an American, because of our ideals, the ideals implicit in these statements. They are humanistic ideals. They show a high respect for the individual. They place the individual over any government, with unalienable and sacred Rights as human beings. The Bill of Rights, written later, goes on to clarify these Rights, including the Freedom of Religion, Press and Expression (First Amendment), protection against illegal Search and Seizure (Fourth Amendment), the Right to Speedy Trial, Confrontation of Witnesses (Sixth Amendment), the Right to Trial by Jury (Seventh Amendment) and others no less important.

America has had 43 presidents. Surely not every American agreed with every act that these presidents carried out. In my opinion, that is not important. It is not necessary. It is not our president who we should hold above everything, but the ideals written on that parchment. To me, a good American, one who loves his or her country, will share a belief in the high respect for the individual written into our defining documents, and not only a belief, one must live by these ideals, on a personal level as well as on a political level. If anything, it is an adherence to these ideals that make a country great, that set it apart from those entities and countries which do not. Stray from that course and days like this, the Fourth of July, become meaningless.

Wishing all a happy and safe Fourth of July.
- posted by Fred @ 2:21 AM