July 4, 1776...

gave us the Declaration of Independence.

March 4, 1789 is a more important day as the Constitution became operative having been endorsed by New Hampshire, the necessary ninth state.

December 15, 1791 is arguably even more important, the Bill of Rights was ratified.

Then too, if you aren’t Caucasian, a date in the late 1800’s during or just after the Civil War, or the day Brown v. School Board came out might be a big day for you.

Gay and living in New York?  Last week had a pretty good day for you.

Then there’s Arab Spring which is spinning into Summer.

But, live in Syria and you don’t have much to celebrate, yet.

All that in mind, maybe Monday will have just a bit of importance as the anniversary of a distillation of some ideas that informed what has come after:

“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 to 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; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 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….”

In the words of a friend, have a sparkly Fourth.  But, words do matter.  I’m thinking about what we learned and applied from the paragraph above, and what it says that we forget.