Striving to fulfill our founding ideals
Today marks 245 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The United States of America, unlike any prior nation in human history, was founded on the belief that we are all created equal and born with natural rights.
It’s what drove the revolutionaries to declare, “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.”
At the time, that was pretty radical. And sadly, it still is.
America’s founders were certainly fallible and had their flaws, as all people are and as any historical figure appears in retrospect. In the more than two centuries since the writing of the Declaration, the United States has struggled to live up to the ideals espoused in that founding document.
Through civil war and civil strife, litigation and legislation, we have grappled with racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and many other means of demeaning and dividing people.
The Civil War brought the abolition of slavery and emancipation, ending the evil institution which undercut the fundamentals of the Declaration. The 15th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1870, barred states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on race or color.
It was another 50 years before women secured the right to vote when the 19th Amendment
was ratified in 1920.
Even so, efforts at voter suppression continued, sparking the Civil Rights movement and ultimately the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which has itself come under attack over the past few years as politics and the public have become increasingly polarized and the culture wars have intensified.
The past year, since the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, has brought renewed focus on equality and stoked new conflicts over inalienable rights and the legacy of historic wrongs.
While there are endless sources of division and polarization, today is a day to recognize that the one thing we all have in common is that we are all citizens of the United States and that the founding promise and the blessings of liberty belong to all of us.
These blessings are fragile. Self-governance, individual rights, and limited government are all new in human history, where the norms of humanity have been brutal, tribalistic and dismissive of the individual.
The America we all know must not be allowed to fail.
The promise of the Declaration of Independence extends to all, regardless of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, religion or any other aspect of character or history. It is up to us to keep and fulfill that promise and to safeguard for all the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Those are the things that are worth fighting for and defending.