We hold these truths to be self-evident ...

... that all men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights ...

When I was in junior high, all of the students in my grade were asked to memorize certain significant historic pieces, among the pieces was the opening to the Declaration of Independence. At that time, the words represented little more than an assignment. I had some facility for memorization, then, so the task was not too hard for me. So, I breezed through the recitation, received my grade, and did not think much about the words again, much less wrestle with the philosophical concepts presented.

I now regret the cavalier way I treated those words. I wish that some teacher had taken the chance to try to engage me and my fellow junior high-ers with something of the significance of those words and the rest of the Declaration of Independence. I realize that, probably, we would not have been receptive, but maybe some germ of an idea would have been planted that would have stuck with me as readily as the words still do.

Of course, while the words are significant, it is the concepts they embody that are more significant and are harder to see lived out. It is easy for us to demand our rights; it is much harder for us to be willing to grant such rights to others, particularly when their freedoms challenge our ideas of what is right.

One thing that was reaffirmed for me as I read Founding Faith was that the men who were responsibile for shaping how this country would operate were human beings and were products of their times. They did things we now see as contradictory; they disagreed with one another; they changed their minds; their views were dynamic and not static; and, their choices often reflected political necessity instead of philosophical purity. Yet, they could affirm the basic truth that all men [we, of course, would now read all people] have basic rights which should not be taken from them by others.

The framers of the Declaration stated that the rights championed therein were part of the gifts endowed upon human beings by 'their creator.' Would that we recognize our role and responsibility in helping secure 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' for all people, regardless of how different from us they may be.