With the 4th of July Holiday just past, it is more important than ever to reflect on the Nation’s founding “energy,” what the Germans would call our Zeitgeist.
Famously observed, America is not a nation that arose due to geographic isolation of a singular genealogical population as the British Isles or Japan. Nor did it arise as a theocracy from one religion like modern-day Iran or Israel. On the contrary, apart from the Native Americans, who have yet to be integrated into the mainstream of American life after two centuries of genocide, no one was born from a single, race, creed, or genetic inheritance. Apart from those native Americans, we all are descendants of emigrants. What attracted emigrants, and still does today, is the awareness that America is more than a physical place, but an idea they longed to embrace. As we bathe in the afterglow of BBQ parties and celebratory fireworks, it is critical to stop and take stock of what that “idea” is and how it all began.
It all started with the Declaration of Independence from the British Crown on July 4, 1776. The first words in the Declaration stated that it represented the unanimous view of the 13 colonies after observing the “course of human events” that compelled the call for independence. Then the Declaration began with declaring a complete break from the British Crown, until then the “mother country.” What followed were some of the most powerful words ever recorded in human history:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [wo]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 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 affect their Safety and Happiness.”