{"id":202654,"date":"2023-07-04T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/?p=202654"},"modified":"2023-07-02T05:34:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-02T09:34:00","slug":"our-turn-to-sign-how-to-celebrate-the-declaration-of-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/our-turn-to-sign-how-to-celebrate-the-declaration-of-independence","title":{"rendered":"Our turn to sign: How to celebrate the Declaration of Independence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cHere once the embattled farmers stood\/And fired the shot heard round the world.\u201d So wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson of the opening musket fire at the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. And so it could also be said of what transpired on July 4, 1776, when the embattled Colonists adopted their Declaration of Independence<\/a>, whose words still reverberate around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

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.\u2014That  to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The remarkable thing is that in asserting their rights vis-\u00e0-vis Great Britain, the Colonists spoke for all people everywhere and in every age. \u201cTo their everlasting credit,\u201d observed historian Henry Steele Commager, \u201cthe Founding Fathers spoke for mankind\u201d out of \u201ca sense of obligation… to posterity\u201d and \u201cto the peoples of the world.\u201d Pennsylvania delegate Benjamin Rush explained, \u201cI was animated constantly by a belief that I was acting for the benefit of the whole world, and of future ages.\u201d And writing from Paris where Franklin sought support for the American cause, he observed, \u201c\u2018Tis a common observation here that our Cause is the Cause of all Mankind, and that we are fighting for their Liberty in defending our own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equally remarkable is the sacrifice the Declaration\u2019s signers were willing to make. As Paul Harvey noted, \u201cEach knew the full meaning of that magnificent last paragraph… in which his signature pledged his life, his fortune and his sacred honor…. If they won this fight, the best they could expect would be years of hardship in a struggling nation. If they lost, they\u2019d face a hangman\u2019s rope.\u201d But they signed. \u201cAnd freedom was born.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now after nearly 250 years, for many of which it has been on public display, the hallowed document has become faded and worn. But the truths it proclaims have never waned. In Commager\u2019s words,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The Declaration of Independence is not merely a museum piece. It is not a parchment to take out once a year, celebrate with ceremonial reverence, and then return to the sterility of a glass case. It is not merely an historical document, something to learn in school as we learn so many things that we promptly forget. It is vital and immediate. It argues a case that is still valid and announces principles that are still true. It still calls upon us to pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our honor to their vindication.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When Commager wrote this over fifty years ago (Freedom and Order<\/em>, 1966), he could hardly have imagined the coming assault that would, as Gabriele Kuby said<\/a> in 2016, employ \u201cthe art of deceptive speech\u201d to seek the \u201cdestruction of freedom in the name of freedom.\u201d Similarly in the 2020 report of the U.S. Commission on Unalienable Rights<\/a>, its distinguished drafters decried the political agenda that \u201cdevalues core rights, and denies rights in the name of rights.\u201d In 2021, Mark Levin wrote<\/a>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The counterrevolution to the American Revolution is in full force. And it can no longer be dismissed or ignored, for it is devouring our society and culture, swirling around our everyday lives, and ubiquitous in our politics, schools, media, and entertainment… We must rise to the challenge, as did our Founding Fathers, when they confronted the most powerful force on earth, the British Empire, and defeated it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And the time to act is now, says Levin, as he quotes President Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn\u2019t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and children\u2019s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In 1776, fifty-six courageous men affixed their signatures\u2014John Hancock\u2019s being the first and largest\u2014to the document Abraham Lincoln would call \u201ca rebuke and a stumbling-block to tyranny and oppression.\u201d The Declaration of Independence, now increasingly disparaged and the sacred freedoms it announces attacked, urgently needs preserving, protecting, and promoting. It is our turn to sign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Declaration of Independence is not merely a museum piece. It still calls upon us to pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":202676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"The Declaration of Independence is not merely a museum piece. It still calls upon us to pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 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Douglas Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f01991614cc9086457280e0279d7da9c1c6dd2774eca1bf16e9e24005c6feb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f01991614cc9086457280e0279d7da9c1c6dd2774eca1bf16e9e24005c6feb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"E. Douglas Clark"},"description":"E. Douglas Clark is an attorney and Director of UN and International Policy at the International Organization for the Family. For two decades Doug has been on the forefront of defending the family at the United Nations as a lobbyist and strategist, leading teams and consulting with policymakers in New York and around the world. His writings include the World Family Declaration and articles in The Natural Family: An International Journal of Research and Policy and Ave Maria International Law Journal. After earning MBA and JD degrees from Brigham Young University, he practiced banking law and served as director of content of the original Law.com.","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/author\/dclarkifamnews-com"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202654"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202675,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202654\/revisions\/202675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}