Is there anything said here that cannot and does not ring true today? We acknowledge the contribution of everyone, including the conquered and enslaved – perhaps especially their unique and unwilling sacrifice – and include them as part of the great experiment that was once a universally accepted premise in this country that God’s hand has guided its growth.
If we continue to express ourselves as separate but equal, by hyphens and parties, we miss the value of Life and Liberty in our unfettered pursuit for personal Happiness. By losing those two, we deny them to others, demeaning them as unnecessary as long as we are happy.
Time was, an American was not happy unless he was in charge of himself and his future…and knew it. What soup lines were there in the depressions of the 19th Century…when men packed up their wagons and went searching for gold, or learned to lead those wagon trains, joined the Chinese immigrant in building a railroad terminated in a golden spike, or sought to drive cattle thousands of miles just to turn around…and do it again.
The frontiers of today are no less promising. Computers open new worlds as yet undiscovered but promising wealth and generational stability for anyone willing to log in at the public library for an hour a day. Most people earn money doing today what didn’t exist half a century ago, and that which was done then is probably done by a robot…dreamed, built, and sold by people who were limited only by their imagination and their belief in the one thing that provides for that opportunity:
The United States of America.
The 56 Patriots who signed their lives and their fortunes over with the Declaration of Independence did so in order to provide for us the protection of three things: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
They promised to protect our Lives, and our Liberty. But not our Happiness…only the pursuit of it.
Attaining it was up to us…but not at the expense of the first two. Without Life, you cannot have Liberty. Without Liberty, you cannot pursue Happiness…and if you cannot pursue it, you cannot have it.
America has been that City On A Hill, and can once again be. But not if we pursue the objective of providing Happiness instead of the Pursuit of it. And not if we provide that Happiness by depriving ourselves and others of Life or Liberty.
We must examine ourselves before condemning others. Do not let someone stand in your way of pursuing Happiness by their promises of Happiness without the grit that our forefathers have done for two thousand generations.
Don’t get something for nothing. The cost is too high.
If you have Life, and Liberty, that’s all you need in order to pursue Happiness. And if your government or some sugar daddy gets in your way of that pursuit…
Go around.
Kristofer Cowles has written 301 articles on this blog.
