Friday, March 29, AD 2024 3:12am

The Declaration of Independence: Read It!

In its main features the Declaration of Independence is a great spiritual document. It is a declaration not of material but of spiritual conceptions. Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man — these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We can not continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.

Calvin Coolidge, July 5, 1926

Each year after lunch on the Fourth, clan McClarey gathers together to read out loud The Declaration of Independence.  The Declaration is not a mere historical artifact, some sort of feel good document that we salute as a patriotic symbol, and then promptly dismiss.  It is filled with ideas, some of the most truly revolutionary ideas that have ever been proclaimed on this planet, and they still remain so 237 years later.  So blow the dust off it, read it, think about it, argue about it.  That is the best way for all Americans to truly observe Independence Day.

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philip
philip
Tuesday, July 2, AD 2013 4:53am

Thank You Donald!
Blessed INdependence Day to you and yours.

David Spaulding
David Spaulding
Tuesday, July 2, AD 2013 6:17am

Civics. It is a course sorely missing in most schools.

It is not Social Studies. It is not History. it isn’t Law or some curious combination of the three or a primer to them.

Civics used to be a separate and independent subject and our studies in Social Studies, History, and Law at American schools do not cover the materialst that used to be studies as Civics with the depth required for Americans to exercise their rights and privileges.

TAC comes closer to the study of Civics – through the curiously intertwined discussions – than any elementary or high school class taught in the schools I know of.

Ted Seeber
Ted Seeber
Tuesday, July 2, AD 2013 9:34am

Too bad it is no longer law (and hasn’t been since the Constitution invalidated it in 1796).

We need a new one.

J. Christian
J. Christian
Tuesday, July 2, AD 2013 4:57pm

Modern addendum to Lincoln’s last sentence:

“…unless it interferes with somebody’s sex life. Imbrute away if so.”

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