We hold these Truths to be self-evident

OC Domer is getting ready to get out and enjoy the long Independence Day weekend, but before I go I wanted to remind everyone what it is we're celebrating as we enjoy baseball, lacrosse, afternoon naps, barbecue, boats, beaches, and babes in bikinis.

We're celebrating the decision of the first brave Americans to declare themselves free human beings, independent of tyrannical, non-responsive, and over-reaching government authority. We're celebrating the decision of those brave men (and the countless men and women who followed them) to put their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor on the line in the name of liberty.

The questions Americans need to ask themselves today are: Are we still independent citizens who yearn to be free, to be responsible for our own lives and happiness? Or have we become instead subjects, willing to trade away our liberty and let the government be responsible for our lives and our happiness?

To me the most important part of the Declaration of Independence is:

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. 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 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 effect their safety and happiness.

As Glenn Reynolds would say, read the whole thing. And have a Happy 4th of July!