Rep Toby Nixon wrote an essay on the Declaration of Independence which I found interesting.  So in honor of our Country’s Independence day, here it is.  It is followed by a poem I saw on Michelle Malkin.

The 4th of July is a complex holiday for me, full of pride, sorrow and resolve.  Ths is only one small aspect of it, and I may post more tomorrow.  Then again I may just take the day off with my family and enjoy a rare sunny day in Washington.

Note:  Tomorrow, Stefan Sharkansky will be presenting a virtual reading of the Declaration, featuring people of all ages reading small passages, including me.  I will be adding a post to it tomorrow when he releases it.  Shark also gets the Hat Tip for this essay.

NOTE 2:  Here it is:

The Declaration of Independence as read by your fellow Sound Politics readers is here [audio]. Follow along with the text.

Happy 4th of July to all of you.  Celebrate our country’s heritage proudly.

 Thoughts on Independence Day

    I find too often that when you ask people to enumerate the “self-evident truths” mentioned in our Declaration of Independence that, if they even have a clue what you’re asking, they too often stop at “pursuit of Happiness”. That’s a shame, because it is in the remainder of that paragraph that we find the most important principles — principles which we must be reminded of, since, in the words of Article 1 Section 32 of our Washington State Constitution, “a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is essential to the security of individual right and the perpetuity of free government.” 

     Here’s a slightly edited statement of those self-evident truths, with punctuation and the numbers before each truth inserted to highlight them (the words are all the original):

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

1. that all men are created equal;
2. that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness;