The News Editorial: Celebrating independence

248 years ago our founding fathers declared their independence.

I think in this time as we celebrate with parades, rodeos, barbecues and fireworks we must take time to read the Declaration of Independence and fully appreciate what those 13 colonies did back in 1776.

The Declaration of Independence is too long to republish here. It lists a lengthy set of grievances against the King of Great Britain. The founding fathers wrote in part, “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 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 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.”

I found it interesting as I was rereading this again this year about the part that states, “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.”

I may be wrong but as I read this it is telling me that we can expect hard times, we can expect times of suffering and that does not mean we abolish the government every time this happened.

“Governments should not be changed for light and transient causes.” It seems in today’s society that is what we try to do. If something is not going our way, whether city, county, state or federal, well then we need to change it. You hear comments “Get rid of all of them (in Cheyenne or Washington, D.C.).”

That is not what our founding fathers expected. They were fighting against “a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.” It was not just a few weeks or years, it was an ongoing tyranny that they decided to fight against.

Take time to read the list of grievances and you will gain a new appreciation for what the colonists were truly fighting.

Some of them include:

“He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.”

“He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.”

“He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.”

“For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.”

“He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.”

The declaration ends, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Does one think with our divided country we would ever “mutually pledge to each other Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor?”

I leave that question for you to answer as you celebrate that which they began 248 years ago.

--Karla Pomeroy