"We hold these truths to be self evident....."

All Americans should be familiar with these words, and those that follow.





They were written by a 33 year old Virginian by the name of Thomas Jefferson.
The son of a surveyor who was responsible for many of the earliest explorations and survey of Western Virginia, then the edge of the wilderness of the American Colonies, he was a young unknown among giants.
Benjamin Franklin, John and Sam Adams, George Washington, John Hancock et. al. were some of the most gifted and impressive people our nation has ever produced.
How was young Tom from Shadwell chosen to pen the most important document in American History?
Franklin said (and I paraphrase) "You write better than I do."
All of the founders had input into the writing of The Declaration of Independence, but on the whole it was Jefferson's words.
For a full understanding of the entire process, read the draft in "Jefferson" writings.
All of his changes and exclusions are noted, and the list of grievences that are normally left out of most modern public printings are there. (The Preamble is the familiar portion, Specific Charges Against the King is normally not printed.)
After all, it was built up frustrations with The Crown that prompted the document and the resulting war of independence.
The Declaration and the Constitution laid the framework for our "Experiment In Democracy".
Slavery, Women's Suffrage and many other issues are still being dealt with.
Four times in his career Jefferson put forth the notion to abolish slavery, while a young legislator, here during the draft of the Declaration, while Governor of Virginia and during the debates on the Constitution.
What would he have done personally if his advice had been heeded, being a slave holder himself? That is one of the great questions of history.
But our founders gave us a great gift, at great risk to themselves and their families.
As Franklin said "Gentlemen, we must hang together or most certainly we will all hang individually!"
Most of the signers of the Declaration suffered greatly, many of them exhausting their entire fortunes and their health for the cause of Liberty.
We celebrated the Fourth by attending a wonderful Concert and Fireworks display at Lake Benson park on Tuesday night in Garner, where we first lived here in NC.
The North Carolina Symphony provided wonderful music, including a medley of Big Band hits from the WWII era in addition to traditional patriotic fare. That was our community celebration.
On Weds night we as a family went to the neighborhood burger joint which rests on a hill overlooking our town of Clayton, where we were able to see the municipal display without the crowds and traffic.
Ariel provided the patriotic music with his iPod plugged into the sound system on his truck (Old Ben would have approved, I think!) and we sat on the hood in the parking lot with a few other astute families and oohed and ahhed at the distant pyrotechnical show.
We will only have him at home for perhaps one more Fourth (last year he was at basic training) depending on his Army duties, so this one was special to Mom and I.

Happy Independence to our family and fellow Citizens of the Greatest Nation on Earth!
God Bless America continually, as long as we remember Him!

Here follows the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence.

"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.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 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 a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its power 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 shown 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. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government."

The photo and text are taken from a Rand McNally textbook printed in 1936, which was owned by my Aunt Rosalie while a student at Concord College.