Editorial
This week marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the date that we associate with the birthdate of the United States of America. Much has and will be made of our history over the past two and a half centuries. We should also look at the writings that have defined our experiment in representative democracy. The greatest of these are highly aspirational – they set a standard of self-government that we as a nation have been trying to live up to since 1776.
Walter Isaacson writes that the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence is the greatest sentence ever written. (“The Greatest Sentence Ever Written,” by Walter Isaacson, 2025) We all know it – many of us had to memorize it at some point – “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.” This idea of a shared belief that we have rights that belong to everyone, and are not bestowed by a government or ruler but inherently ours, is supposed to underlie our system of government and our laws.
America had never fully lived up to this promise – no society of human beings can fully - but constitutional amendments, a civil war, struggles by brave men and women and a society that, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, “bends toward justice” has meant that America has moved toward the ideals expressed in the Declaration. We still have work to do. The “greatest sentence” is an ideal, and ideals are like perfection – something to aspire to, to strive toward, but because of human nature, impossible to attain. But we must never stop trying.
The second seminal writing is in the preamble to the Constitution: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Again, we have the concept of “We.” We, the people of the United States.
We – old, young, White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, men, women, gay, straight, rural, urban, Northerners, Southerners, Westerners, native-born, naturalized, immigrants, indigenous - we are all the WE. We agreed to do these things specified in the preamble to the Constitution. The Constitution set the rules of the game for our government, but it’s up to us, through voting, petitioning our representatives and generally being active citizens moving our nation toward that more perfect union.
Other notable documents well worth re-reading include Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, the Federalist Papers, the entire Constitution, and Washington’s farewell address.
So let’s celebrate this special Fourth of July, marking this notable anniversary. Enjoy the fireworks, the hot air balloons, bike parade, the Freedom Food Festival, and our own cookouts and family gatherings. We have much to celebrate. But let’s not lose sight of the unfinished business of making our country “a more perfect union.” The Founders saw this as America’s greatest strength; an optimistic view that we can make our country and our society better over time.
