Yesterday marked 245 years since 56 brave colonists signed the Declaration of Independence. Among the most famous words of that document are these:
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 affect their Safety and Happiness.
What do these lines actually mean? First, and most important is that our Founding Fathers felt the things they were about to say were self-evident truths, not to be argued with or ignored because their existence as truth could NOT be denied. And what were these truths? First, that all men, all humans in other words, regardless of the color of their skin, have certain God-given rights that no government has given them and that no government has the right to take away from them. These include Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
It goes on to say that the role of the government is to secure those rights, and that they get their power to do so from those they govern. If the people do not consent to a law, then that law must not be passed. And if a government “becomes destructive of these ends” it is the “Right of the People to alter or to abolish it” and to create in its place a government which protects their safety and happiness.
But it seems our current leaders would condemn this document to the trash, just as they would condemn the Constitution and the freedoms it so clearly lays out. A right to life? Not if you are still in the womb! Then it is the mother’s choice whether to kill you or to let you live. A right to liberty? Not so much so anymore. More and more blue states are heaping stringent laws upon citizens to prevent them from obtaining firearms, despite the right to bear arms being clearly stated in the Constitution. Some anti-gun proponents point to the word “militia” in the Constitution and say that I cannot own a gun unless I am part of an organized “militia.” Where do they think the Patriots came from at Lexington and Concord? They were no more “organized militias” than my husband and I and our gun-toting friends are. They were farmers and shopkeepers who had guns in their homes and when the call came to defend against the British, they went. There were, to start with, no captains, no generals to lead them. That is why General Washington’s army was such a rag-tag bunch of “soldiers.” When it was harvest time, a large number of them went back to their farms to bring in the crops so their families didn’t starve during the winter. And when winter came, and the soldiers were freezing in their tents on the snowy ground, it was all Washington could do to keep them all from going home to their warm fires and their families. This is the militia that the Constitution refers to: ordinary Americans, owning guns, and ready to fight when needed whether against a tyrannical government or against rioters and criminals that our current government seems to prefer over law abiding Americans.
And where is our liberty of speech? The Left, now the Democrat Party, tells us what we can say and what we cannot. Their ideas, no matter how ludicrous, must be instantly accepted or we are shamed on social media, then banned from social media, and often even fired or subjugated to mobs on our doorsteps, threatening our families. Is this the free country that our Founding Fathers imagined, or the very worst of the European countries from which they had fled?
We are constantly told to change our vocabulary. Words offend others and in this world of fragile psyches you must never, never offend anyone! The okay sign is a sign of white supremacy, we are told. So is the V for victory sign. “Long time, no see” may trigger someone because it is based on the broken English of native Americans, thus, it somehow shames them for us to use it. Huh? How many of you knew that? And if you didn’t know that, and you aren’t talking to a native American, how are you offending someone? Now the word “triggered” itself is to be banned, along with “shoot,” “dead to rights” and other “gun terms.” Those non-carrying liberals are afraid of those words. Really? I cannot think of a single word I am afraid of. I was once called a “slut” by an angry student, and I admit that offended me. I told a colleague, “’Bitch’ kids have called me before, but ‘slut?’” Since I was an unmarried virgin at the time, I thought it was a bit much. Teachers get it all, and we learn to take it with a grain of salt. But today’s left can’t bear to have their fragile little feelings hurt!
I can have a picnic and serve fried chicken and watermelon for dessert and my family and friends will be delighted . . . but not, I am told, if any of them are black. Black friends might be offended by those foods, since they are stereotypical foods that black people are supposed to like! We can’t wear sombreros and have Mexican themed parties because that is appropriating Mexican culture, but eating at Taco Bell and Los Tres Caminos isn’t. We can name a sports team the Trojans, the Fighting Irish or the Celtics, because apparently no one cares if the people living in what used to be Troy, the descendants of Celts or the current inhabitants of Ireland are offended. But don’t name your team the Chiefs, the Braves, the Indians, or the Warriors or you will find yourself being doxed, shamed and dropped by advertisers because the Left says that those names offend native Americans. I’d like to know exactly how many native Americans are actually offended when a team chooses to call itself the Braves because it wants to portray the image of the toughness and fighting spirit of native American warriors! How, how is that offensive?
The pursuit of happiness is becoming far more difficult these days as well. With all the things we are told we cannot say or cannot do and with the growing inflation that raises the cost of everything we must buy from groceries and medicine to gas for our cars; with the bans on drilling and fracking on government lands and the cancellation of the XL Keystone pipeline; with empty spots in store shelves; scarcity of new cars and building supplies; with more regulations on fossil fuels which will at the very least raise the cost of heating and cooling, it becomes more difficult to be happy in a life with fewer and fewer dollars left after the bills are paid.
Government is to protect our God-given rights. But how has government in Minneapolis, in Chicago, in Portland, in Kenosha, and in all of the other Democrat-run cities protected the rights of its citizens from the destruction and murder of the BLM and Antifa mobs? And how has the government of those same cities who have defunded their police departments and who place barriers in the way of law-abiding citizens so that they cannot obtain firearms to protect themselves secured the safety of their citizens? They have not. Instead, they have left them to endure increases of 78% in burglaries in San Francisco and a 33%-35% increase in homicides in most major cities. Shootings, both fatal and non-fatal are up about 70%! But then, the “elite” who govern us have armed body guards and live in gated, walled communities far from the neighborhoods where crime is rife. So, what do they care?
But hope remains! Remember the words, “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 affect their Safety and Happiness.” Our current government is destructive of the ends of securing for us life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thus, like the Patriots of old, we must fly the Stars and Stripes and demand the rights given to us by God and enshrined in our Constitution.
2022 is coming. Let us remember the loss of freedoms and the regulations that curb our pursuit of happiness when we enter that voting booth! And let us “institute new Government” which to us “shall seem most likely to affect [our] Safety and Happiness.”
Happy Independence Day Weekend!