July 5, 2007

Explosive Reading

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.

I never read the Declaration of Independence before this year when we studied it in history.

I always thought it was a lovely and important document written in fancy handwriting on parchment.

It is all that, but when I read it for the first time I was struck by what it says. Those colonists did not mince words. The independence we now possess and enjoy with abandon without realizing we even have it --- it all came at great price.

The fancy handwriting and eloquently crafted sentences stated in no uncertain terms what those colonists were sick and tired of and exactly what jolly old King George had done.

He has refused...

He has forbidden...

He has obstructed...

George was

totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation...A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Imagine the courage those men must have had to make that bold proclamation. It did not mean they fired up the grill and shot off fireworks. It meant certain and imminent war.