By Bob Bradley
This Saturday, people will gather in parks for cookouts, to play outdoor games, and in the evening watch fireworks displays. This will be done to celebrate the Fourth of July. Yet how many think about the true significance of that date for American history.
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence. Great Britain and America had been at war for a year. Congress appointed a committee to draft a statement for the American people and the rest of the world to explain why we were at war. Thomas Jefferson took on the responsibility of writing this statement.
The Declaration was the first written statement in the world to justify why colonies waging war to break away from their home country was not an act of treason but rather was an action to promote democracy. Agreement with that statement was critical for other nations to accept the United States of America as a separate and independent nation, if it won the Revolutionary War.
Perhaps the most famous line in the Declaration is “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.”
Lincoln used this statement as a centerpiece of his policies. Groups employ it as the basis of their human rights philosophies. And many nations since 1776 have included it as part of their own declarations of independence.
So on Saturday evening as you watch with wonder exploding fireworks in the sky, please reserve an admiring thought for those 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence and their commitment to starting this nation on the path to becoming a beacon of democracy for the world.
Bob Bradley is a professor emeritus from Illinois State University where he primarily taught law-related courses in the political science department for 30 years. He did a weekly-segment for WJBC on politics and law for more than a decade. He also co-hosted a live- radio show from the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 2008, and reported live from the 2012 Republican convention. Currently, he serves on several community boards, does volunteer work, enjoys golf and fishing, and likes landscaping and bird-watching. He is married to the love of his life, Reenie, and has one daughter, Erin.
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