"We hold these truths..."

The words ring true 234 years later. The Declaration of Independence remains among the boldest affirmations of God given rights ever authored by humans. It embodies our hopes, our dreams and our responsibilities to one another.

While Americans feast on hot dogs and beer and revel at the spectacle of fireworks and Sousa marches, it is important to remember why we party every 4th of July.

The first such occasion was no picnic. The men who signed that fateful document had thumbed their noses at King George III of England. They knew the ink on that declaration might as well have been signed in blood. They put "...our Lives, our Fortunes, our sacred Honor" on the line.

They had started a revolution that would reverberate around the world. America became a destination of dreams, a frontier of unbounded ambition, a land that celebrated the independence of every human soul.

Yes, we know many signers were engaging in some hypocrisy since they were slave owners demanding freedom from a King they saw as an unjust tyrant. But the wisest among them knew that the shackles of slavery would it time be undone. The genie was out of the bottle.

More than two centuries later, we tend to forget the notion that our government operates with "consent of the governed." We are endowed by our creator with the rights that make us the masters of our own destiny.

Those who believe any government has all the answers must have forgotten that it's up to us to provide those answers. It's "We the people," not "They, the government" (King, emperor, President, Congress, whatever).

We don't need another revolution. We have the mechanisms of civic purpose in our hands. Yes, lobbyists and other assorted "influence peddlers" have invested billions to get government in line with their agenda; yes the news media have become the modern incarnation of the "unruly mob." Politically correct speech has curbed our discourse in silly and sometimes ominous ways. But we still control the levers of power if we choose wield them. The ballot box only works when "We the People" take it seriously.

We have another chance this year to declare our independence from the tyranny of little minds and the public "servants" who have forgotten how to serve.

So again, I remind my fellow citizens that some 234 years later, that fateful declaration still lives; but only as long as we're willing to put our lives, "our Lives, our Fortune, and our sacred Honor" on the line once again.