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Show THE DAY THEY LAUNCHED THE PAPER SKIFF 5 parade was managed, even a cannonade from their meager stores of powder. What does that two-hundred-year-old document have to do with us? It would probably be embarrassing to take a poll of all Americans who have read the Declaration of Independence, or who, having read it as a high school assignment, promptly forgot it. The first page begins with high sounding phrases:: "When in the course of human events, " and proceeds with elegant language to define true government, rights and liberties, through abuses and usurpations, to a long list of crimes perpetrated by King George III upon his people, the Colonists. But wait! Tucked into every definition and delineation, every abuse and accusation, is a part of each living American. It should be read and read again. Moreover, the obligations attending each right and liberty should be debated as earnestly as they were between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson throughout the rest of their lives, as they have been defended in battle fields and courts throughout the world for these two hundred years, written in blood as surely as that document was inked in power. For we, the people, are in that Declaration. It has become Magna-Charta precious and holy-writ profound. It colors our lives with rainbow hues of equality; its freedom is our breath. Let us join those shaking words: "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. " More than our ancestors and our native land were there the day our forefathers leaped into the dark on a paper skiff. |
