Guest Opinion: Paul Little | The Declaration’s Enduring Demand: Live Up to Its Lofty Aspirations

We are fortunate to live in a country that cherishes freedom, individuality and opportunity. 

The things we, as Americans, enjoy that many in other countries can’t even imagine. 

Our freedoms, our quality of life, our ambitions and our expectations were put to paper 250 years ago. Our Declaration of Independence remains a truly revolutionary document that is as relevant today as it was 250 years ago.

“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.” 

The preamble to the Declaration of Independence, largely drafted by Thomas Jefferson, is extraordinary in many ways. Jefferson was very clever in basing the fundamental rationale for independence on natural, human law. He also made clear it was “necessary” for the American colonies to become independent and self-governing. 

Looking back, it is truly amazing that a group of wealthy men from disparate colonies, backgrounds and beliefs could come together to support breaking away from the nation that had founded and governed the colonies for 150 years. Yet they did just that, unanimously. 

“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.” 

The validity of a government rises not in heredity or history or longevity, but from the support of its people. At the time, very startling is the notion that people have the right to ‘consent’ to be governed.

The Declaration lays out the promise of America and also sets out a challenge. How do we live up to these lofty aspirations? Throughout our history the contradictions and conflicts between what we want to be and who we are consistently clash. 

We have many examples locally. Owen Brown, the son of John Brown the Liberator, is buried above Altadena. Right or wrong in their methods, the Brown family, father and sons, fought for the abolition of slavery. We honor Pasadena’s war dead with memorials at Victory Park, Memorial Park and Defenders Park. 

We are imperfect, often divided, sometimes wrong, but the Unites States of America remains a beacon of promise and an example of how government “of the people, by the people and for the people” (as Abraham Lincoln described us) can also prosper, support its people and lead the world economically, morally and militarily. 

America remains the ‘land of opportunity’. We aspire to be that nation where everyone has the chance to succeed-to build a life with the liberty and means to pursue our happiness. 

Happy Independence Day. 

Be safe. 

Paul Little is President and CEO of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce.