EDITORIAL: Remember The Reason For The Fourth

It's time to celebrate another Fourth of July. It's time for those barbecues. Time for baseball and homemade goodies. Time for fireworks.

As we approach the 232nd birthday of our nation, we at the Times want to pay tribute to the ideas and ideals of the founders that still make ours the most successful experiment in human history.

One of our favorite reminders of America's greatness came from President Ronald Reagan during his farewell speech in 1989. Reagan said: "Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: 'We the people.' 'We the people' tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us. 'We the people' are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which 'We the people' tell the government what it is allowed to do."

These words give sound guidance not only in a presidential election year, but also in a time when Dorchester residents must decide who will lead their community in the future.

For years, some of our nation's leaders have warned of an eradication of the American memory that could result in an erosion of the American spirit. Unfortunately, those warnings have turned prophetic in some cases.

Too many Americans, even here in the Heartland, have never learned the story the American Revolution or been adequately taught about the ingeniousness and bravery of our founders. But that can change overnight, household by household. As Reagan said in his farewell speech, "All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen, I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an American, let 'em know and nail 'em on it. That would be a very American thing to do."

Let's use this Independence Day to refresh our own American memories and renew our own American spirits by re-examining the words of our Declaration of Independence. In between the barbecues and the fireworks, we hope Dorchester area residents will take just a couple of minutes to remember true significance of July Fourth.

The following are key excepts from the nation's founding document:

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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 of 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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes ... But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies ...

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — 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.