The Delaration of Independence

I'm sure I had to read the DoI at some point in my educational career. Surely, it has to be in there somewhere. I did somehow get out of high school completely unaware of the Crusades. While my husband thinks this reflects upon public education, I believe it reflects on ADD and a monotone World Civilization teacher. So, like I said, I'm sure it was covered somewhere between ages 5-18. It was only a few years ago that I discovered what a profoundly moving document it is. Each year on the 4th of July, NPR reporters take turns reading the DoI in its entirety. I had a newspaper route at the time and was awake at 7am on a Saturday morning to hear the reading. While I am not an emotional person, and do not consider myself patriotic in any way, it almost had me in tears. It largely echoed my sentiments regarding our country. America often disgusts me. The sense of entitlement, waste, a wealthcare system, and superiority that Americans hold turn my stomach. I fully admit that I play into the stereotype of all the aforementioned characteristics. Seeing these traits in myself make me the most disgusted. The thing you hate the most in others is simply a reflection of yourself, right? At the time, I was especially angry. The Bush administration was in full swing. (Nuff said.) I wanted to revolt, to take back the country from the war, from poverty, from the hands of the extremely wealthy. I wanted, and still want, the little people to matter. Listening to the reading, alone in my old Subaru, inspired me in a profound way. The forepeople of our country were angry and were oppressed. They were furious at the monarchy, and truly yearned for a better way of life. They were willing to fight for it, not just through political action, but by physically putting their bodies in the gears of the machine. While I have trouble supporting any war, I could be persuaded to endorse this war for the sheer fact that these people knew that there could be a better way of life and that they were willing fight to get it. They were willing to move to an unknown land, enter battle and take on the arduous process of writing documents, by hand, to frame exactly what they wanted. I like that.

The thing I liked most about the DoI was that it disproved so many of the tired phrases thrown out by conservative war/hate mongers. "Love it or leave it," has always made me cringe. Basically saying, If you don't like the way we do things, and have always done things, then we have no room for you here. It makes me think of The Lottery. We have always done things this way, why should we change now? The fallacy with this argument is that it only works when you are in the majority, and history has shown how quickly the majority can be overthrown. So the next post is filled with my favorite parts of the DoI. This document is one of the few things that make me feel proud to be an American.