It was 245 years ago that a brave group of American colonists sent what was effectively a legal complaint to the King of England. Inspired by the English jurist William Blackstone, the complaint contained a list of the colonists’ grievances, then demanded their independence as compensation for damages. This citizen’s complaint is commonly known as the Declaration of Independence.
We won our independence, but we now suffer under a new sort of tyrant. We find ourselves bound by the invisible chains of codependence.
We celebrate July 4th, 1776, as our nation’s birthday. It is not, in the strictest sense, the date of our birth; nor is it even the actual year. Depending on how you choose to define it, our nation was actually “born” either in 1787 (with the signing of the Constitution), in 1788 (with the ratification of the Constitution), or in 1789 (with the convening of the First Congress). What then should we call July 4, 1776? It is the day we got pregnant. What followed was a long and bloody path toward liberation and birth.
Today, the Declaration of Independence is one of the (if not the) most cherished American documents. Its language is inspiring, and it reminds us of the incredible courage shown and the price paid by those who risked and gave all to secure for us the gift of freedom. It is a foundational part of our history.
But it is not a part of our present. We no longer are a distant colony living under the rule of an unreasonable king. We won our freedom, wrote a constitution, and built a new nation. Using the greatest ideas from the Enlightenment, our founding fathers started us on a path that led us to become the greatest nation in the history of Western Civilization.
We won our independence, but we now suffer under a new sort of tyrant. We find ourselves bound by the invisible chains of codependence. We are not being ruled unreasonably by others. Instead, we are unreasonably letting ourselves be ruled by the need to appear caring and helpful. We are supporting, perpetuating, and enabling the irresponsible and destructive behavior of our fellow citizens who are determined to fundamentally transform the tenets of Americanism.
It is, therefore, once again time for a statement to be made and for lines to be drawn. We cannot find the strength to restore our republic if we cannot first find the strength to set our own minds, bodies, and consciences free. It is time to formally and publicly decline to remain codependent.