THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
        
              Reinhold Niebuhr once wrote, "Humanities inclination to
        justice makes democracy possible.  Humanity's inclination to
        injustice makes democracy necessary."  
              Daniel Webster, in celebration of the nation's birthday,
        July 4th, said, "Let our object be our country, our whole
        country, and nothing but our country.  And, by the blessing of
        God, may that country itself become a vast splendid monument, not
        of oppression and terror, but of wisdom, of peace and of liberty,
        upon which the world may gaze with admiration forever."
              We celebrate July 4th with picnics and fireworks.  However,
        I wonder how many of us, 250,000,000 strong, have ever bothered
        reading the Declaration of Independence on this our most
        important holiday?
              The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the
        Continental Congress, in Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776, and was
        signed by John Hancock as President and by Charles Thomson, as
        Secretary.  It was published first on July 6 in the Pennsylvania
        Evening Post.  A copy of the Declaration, embossed on parchment,
        was signed by the members of Congress on and after August 2,
        1976.
              What does the document really say?
              The Founding Fathers inscribed the following reasons for its
        creation:
              "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."
              Next comes the most often quoted section:  "We declare 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 to these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter
        or 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."
              Now this is a mighty strong statement, but the Fathers did
        not believe it would hold any weight in the World community of
        their day.  They wrote, "The history of the present King of Great
        Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all
        having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny
        over these States."
              To prove this, they listed the following "Facts to be
        submitted to a candid world."  The King has: refused to Assent to
        Laws; forbidden his governors to pass Laws of immediate and
        pressing importance; refused to pass laws for the accommodation
        of large districts of people unless the people relinquish the
        right of representation in the Legislature; called other
        legislative bodies at places unusual and distant from the
        depository of their public records; dissolved Representative
        Houses repeatedly; refused for a long time...to cause others to
        be elected; endeavored to prevent the population of these States;
        obstructed the Administration of Justice; made Judges dependent
        upon his will alone; erected a multitude of New Offices; kept
        among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without Consent of
        the legislature; affected to render the Military independent of
        and superior to the Civil Power; combined with others to subject
        us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution; abdicated
        Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging
        War against; plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our
        towns, and destroyed the lives of our people; is transporting
        large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of
        death; constrained our fellow Citizens taken captive on the high
        Seas to bear Arms against their Country; excited domestic
        insurrections amongst us; endeavored to bring on the inhabitants
        of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages..."
              The final paragraph summarized what they believed to be
        their right under "Divine Providence."
              "We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of
        America (the first time this term appeared anywhere in print in
        the history of mankind)...solemnly publish and declare, That
        these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and
        Independent States.... 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." 
              These fifteen hundred or so words changed forever the course
        of modern human history.  
              Many more July 4ths will be celebrated, and most of us will
        shoot off fireworks, eat pounds of hamburgers, hotdogs, and giant
        scoops of homemade ice cream, and cool off in the backyard pool.
              We owe these "Rebels" a great debt, and we can only repay by
        remaining eternally vigilant and protect what they founded.
              Let us then, you and I, thank our forebears for their great
        gift to us.  The 4th is not just another paid holiday, but truly,
        a living memorial to the "Greatest Experiment in government ever
        created by Man."
              And to think that all of this was done just for us - We, the
        People.