I have never really read the Declaration of Independence. Until now.

[Will Carry]

How about you? We studied it in school and all but I was day dreaming on those days. These guys were brilliant.

Declaration of Independence - Transcript

[Raoul]

It's a monumental document. And it's gloriously incindiary. In my mind these words are what America is really all about.

[Guest Bronker]

...and you would be surprised (and appalled) at the ignorance of the average American regarding that document.

I used to teach a Sunday school class comprised of a dozen or so teenage boys. Mind you, these were great kids from healthy, nurturing homes. They were a mix of public school and private school kids. One day, we got into a discussion regarding U.S. history and the founding documents. Much to my horror, only a few of these kids even knew what the Declaration even meant, and only one could recite the Preamble.

We wonder why the country has arrived at the basement floor? We are educating our kids about the delights of Classical French Architecture from the Renaissance era, taking them to the local Pumpkin Maze and shoving XBox down their throats rather than giving them the roots of their beloved country and giving them a reason to take pride in her. Worse yet, we are teaching them to be apologetic about being an American because we have a president :vomit: who makes his citizenship look like a bunch of bloated jack-booted thugs!

Who got me started? Where's the Ativan...

[Just2Honor]

+1 Bronker I'll add that we've created a generation that stands in front of the microwave and says, "Hurry up" Want it (whatever that is at the moment) now and don't want to wait or work for it. Not willing to sacrifice for anything.

“The things that will destroy America are peace at any price, prosperity at any cost, safety first instead of duty first,

the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.†Theodore Roosevelt

[Garufa]

It is one of the most powerful documents ever written.

[Garufa]

.

Edited July 2, 2011 by Garufa
Double tap

[Rightwinger]

...and you would be surprised (and appalled) at the ignorance of the average American regarding that document.

I used to teach a Sunday school class comprised of a dozen or so teenage boys. Mind you, these were great kids from healthy, nurturing homes. They were a mix of public school and private school kids. One day, we got into a discussion regarding U.S. history and the founding documents. Much to my horror, only a few of these kids even knew what the Declaration even meant, and only one could recite the Preamble.

We wonder why the country has arrived at the basement floor? We are educating our kids about the delights of Classical French Architecture from the Renaissance era, taking them to the local Pumpkin Maze and shoving XBox down their throats rather than giving them the roots of their beloved country and giving them a reason to take pride in her. Worse yet, we are teaching them to be apologetic about being an American because we have a president :vomit: who makes his citizenship look like a bunch of bloated jack-booted thugs!

Who got me started? Where's the Ativan...

You had me at suprised!

[Mechanic_X]

It is in my sig line. And a copy on my car. My kids have read it with me.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Classical french architecture? Bronker, you're giving the schools too much credit!

I remember the elementary schools in my area teaching the macarena and how

to look like they are playing a recorder.

[Guest bkelm18]

Not only are the words of that document powerful, but the meaning and the context are even greater. That document is a message from a lowly group of colonists to the most powerful empire in the world, to the very monarch of that empire, telling them to go piss up a rope. It doesn't get more powerful than that. Liberty is fighting for what you believe in, even if it means certain death.

[Worriedman]

Reading the speeches of Franklin, Henry and Jefferson make me seem less a singular radical than my family and acquaintances imagine me to be. The difference in them and us, they KNEW that their rhetoric was going to require back-up.

By putting pen to paper with their signatures on the Declaration of Independance, they knew the baddest Empire of the day was going to come and try to kill them. That took some spine.

[mav]

I have the Declaration as background on my computer, so I get to see it everyday. I am still in awe as to how wise our founding fathers were. It is too bad that we can't people in our Congress of similiar wisdom and character. Instead, we are stuck with people like Shelia Jackson Lee, Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Dick Durbin, etc... I would suspect that most of our representatives and senators would have been classified as Tories, loyal to the crown, back in the pre-revolutionary period.

[oldogy]

I have the Patriot's Handbook of American Liberty in pocket size. It has the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. Available from the Liberty Counsel, Liberty Counsel. A donation gets you a format that is easily carried.

[Guest midnitelamp]

anyone read the deleted article of the declaration?

[Oh Shoot]

... I am still in awe as to how wise our founding fathers were.

Yeah, if they had just foreseen a few more things, like concept of the career politician and put in strict term limits so that our reps would have no motive beyond the best interests of the country, we likely wouldn't be in decline.

- OS