All People are Created Equal

As we prepare to celebrate Independence Day, I’m recalling the first Independence Day, July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, announcing the separation of the 13 American colonies from Great Britain. While not a law in the traditional sense, it articulates the philosophical and political justifications for independence, including Enlightenment ideals and grievances against the British monarch.

Almost 250 years have now passed and the first principle of that declaration continues to guide us, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [now people] 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.”

The country has expanded its view of who now has those unalienable rights as the years have passed; to former slaves, indigenous people, women, foreigners, those with all gender identities, those with disabilities, and others. Essentially recognizing that “all” actually means everyone as long as they don’t infringe on the unalienable rights of others.

We leave government to do the infringing, and this one, in less than six months, has turned DEI on its head, tested the outer limits of protections afforded to immigrants and those seeking asylum here, has canceled funds approved by earlier congressional acts and now stands prepared to reduce funding for programs that support many of the most vulnerable Americans, while extending tax cuts that mostly benefit the rich. And, many provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act being considered in Congress as I write this, won’t take effect until 2028, just in time for the next President to be blamed.

I’m further reminded of the Declaration of Independence section saying, “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.

Creators of this document could not have seen the future, where many in Congress loudly protest the loss of civil rights across many classes of people, including the deportation of both foreign nationals and citizens, without the due process to which the U.S. Constitution and legal precedent to which they are entitled. They certainly saw the disposition to suffer, while it’s sufferable.

As this Independence Day approaches, look at your friends, relatives and fellow citizens, as you remember, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

On Friday, July 4, the 249th anniversary of the day we remember then, ask yourself whether they are suffering and whether you can take personal responsibility for it.

Do you consent to being governed as you are being governed?

If not, recall further, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.”

Paul Fixx, editor

Paul Fixx

Editor

Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.