Independence Day

On this July 4th, I'd like to just get down my thoughts on what it means to me. It is a day when we declared our independence from the tyrannical reign of the British (though it really wasn't that tyrannical). The gentlemen who affixed their signatures onto that document on this day, in 1776, put forth their fortunes and more importantly their lives for the abstract idea of a democratic government ruled by the people, not by a lone monarch.

Often times you will hear me talk about my disatisfaction with the current state of our country and the government, but that in no way means that I don't hold the idea of the country close to my heart. The glorious nature of the idea is that every two years, a revolution takes place in this country. The very idea of this is laid out in the preamble of the Declaration.

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.

The Idea laid out in the preamble above illustrates that it often becomes necessary to alter or abolish the Government when it becomes destructive of the above ends. Yet it cautions against doing so for "light and transient causes." Which is why in the document to later follow, the Constitution of the United States, provisions were made to accommodate both issues.

Every two years our country undergoes a bloodless, peaceful revolution whereby the government, if it does not follow the dictates of the people and treads upon the rights of the People, is altered or abolished and a new government is instituted with the installment of new representatives to follow the instructions of those who have given it their consent. It is not the Constitution and the Idea that is altered or abolished, but the Government itself that they guide which is altered or abolished.

So often communist nations claim to be a continuing revolution, but there is no revolution that in a regime that is ruled by a single dictator for decades. The true, continuing revolution is the one that is still taking place more than 231 years after it begin: the United States of America, the revolutionary experiment of 50 joined states.

Regardless of the Government that is in office, regardless of the state of affairs of the country, the Idea still stands and still rules. And a revolution is only every two years away.