This is the month when we as a people come together to celebrate the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. This is a celebration that today is shared by millions of people who have decided to make of this land theirs: whether they were born here or some place else. This day is a source of great joy for any liberty loving human being on the face of the earth.
The words of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence have been quoted all over the world by all liberty loving people, even those whom our government has deemed our enemies. These words resound all over the world: “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.”
It was only in the mid-twentieth century that this paragraph of the Declaration would be used in other declarations of independence. The Declaration of Independence of the Czechoslovak Nation (1918) and the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence (1945) are two examples where the language of the second paragraph where clearly utilized. The Czechoslovak Declaration was drafted in Washington, DC, by, among others, Gutzon Borglum (the sculptor of Mount Rushmore). It placed the American Declaration within a lineage stretching from the proto-Protestantism of Jan Hus in the fifteenth century all the way to the Wilsonian promise of self-determination in the early twentieth. Likewise, Ho Chi Minh's Declaration opened with quotations from the second paragraph of the American Declaration and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man. Ho Chi Minh, an admirer of George Washington, thereby placed the Vietnamese revolution for independence in the long tradition of revolutionary movements seeking liberty like the British Colonies did in 1776, 235 years ago.
This year we will celebrate another year of independence, another year of achievements, another year of struggles because it is only in the struggle to maintain our liberties, and our independence that the words of the declaration make sense. Liberty and independence are not achieved by wishful thinking it requires that “We the people,” as the Preamble to the Constitution declares, take responsibility for the future of our country, for the appropriate working of our institutions, and for the creation of new institutions that meet the needs of the “people” today.
On July 4th, we will celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress. Many people will celebrate this day with red, white, and blue decorations and clothes; others with fireworks. People use this special day as an excuse to gather with family and friends. You will find many people having picnics and BBQs. They gather in backyards, beaches, and parks all over the country, some will play football, and others baseball. Whichever your case might be, remember that we as people of faith have a responsibility to make sure that our republic and our institutions ought to respond to the needs of the people. We as people of faith in this pluralistic society have the responsibility to secure that all the people in this land are treated with respect and dignity, that the civil and human rights we proclaim to be a fundamental part of our country, ought to be afforded equally to everyone that dwells in our midst. As Leviticus 19:33-34 states: “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
The celebration of our Independence must always keep sight that we are free but by the grace of God, our achievements are but by the grace of God, the good we have been able to accomplish in our land and in other lands has been achieved but by the Grace of God. If the words of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence are to hold true for us today, we as believers, as Christians, must make sure that we as a people can be all that God wants us to be whether we were born citizens of this land or not. The fact of the matter is that our lot is cast with everyone who lives in our land, and we are called to welcome them all to God’s household; wherever God’s household happens to be.
Dr. Eliezer Valentín-Castañón
