Air Force Independence Day Message Skips over Creator
The US Air Force leadership issued an Independence Day message that, while a worthy effort at marking the July 4th celebration, skipped over a rather important part of the Declaration of Independence [emphasis added]:
This Fourth of July marks the 236th year since the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence…
Thanks to the vision of our Founding Fathers and the commitment of the courageous men and women who fought to win American independence, we inherit a legacy of freedom based on the idea that all people possess certain unalienable rights–to life, to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness.
A high school American Government refresher might be useful:
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…
While the wording is largely the same as it was last year, it is a somewhat tortured turn of a simple phrase. The “vision” of the founding fathers was not “freedom based on the idea [of] unalienable rights” — it was freedom from government interference with Divinely-granted rights. As the founding fathers clearly said: those rights come from the Creator — not any work of man. (Interestingly, President Obama has been criticized for dropping “Creator” from his quotations of the Declaration.)
If man was responsible for granting those rights, then man would have the authority to take them away. That was a large part of the argument behind the Declaration: the King was restricting that which was the authority solely of God. Because those rights are endowed by God, no man has the right to unjustly deprive another of his rights.
When we ‘thank the founding fathers’ for their vision, then, we should acknowledge their reliance on the fact such rights are above the purview of human government, and extend from the Creator.
While perhaps no longer politically correct, it was an important distinction in 1776 — and it remains important today.
Photo credit: U.S. Army photo by Spc. Eric Cabral, Afghanistan, June 6, 2010.
JD —
It was the Air Forces’ choice for their message not yours. You imply they should have said what YOU wanted them to say…you know, from the American Government refresher quote. The concept of Man’s rights being unalienable is based solely upon the belief in their Divine origin…which is what YOU want them to say, and then we would have “endorsement” and it appear they are smarter then that.
I don’t thank my parents for “creating” me, why do we need to thank someone/thing for that anyway? I didn’t ask to be created (I prefer born), but I’m here, and I like the rest of us, are doing the best we can…although its getting increasingly difficult because we can’t seem to recover from Bdubs screw ups (oh sorry, I digressed there a bit).
You also must realize the no matter the so called “unalienable Rights” you get all of your choices and freedoms from man…we are a country of laws for a reason, nothing else will ever work.
@watchtower
Correctly citing the Declaration of Independence is an improper “endorsement?” That’s a little far-fetched.
Your second paragraph doesn’t make sense, so it seems you’ve misread something. The point made above is that the liberties found in America today didn’t come from the “vision” of the founding fathers. Even they said the origin of these rights was above the realm of man.
Perhaps you should read the Declaration again. In part:
As the signers of the Declaration attested, liberty does not originate in man or his government. If it did, government would be supreme, and there would never be a “right of the people” to change that government — because, as you say, they would be subject to their “nation of laws.”
That was part of the beauty of the American experiment: Government was accountable to the people (not the other way around), and the people are able to hold Government to a standard higher than itself.
May I suggest that all men are created equal…without the need for any supernatural creator. I contend that all men (and women) are created equal simply by the fact that they are born human. Certain people and governments (and religions) may not recognize that fact, but a fact it is. I also suggest that your capricious god could (and has) decide that we humans are no longer worthy. Once he had changed his mind he would simply turn on the brimstone or deluge spigot and get rid of us at his will. So much for unalienable.
Created equal? We continue to fight hard to obtain equality.
Unalienable rights? Poppycock. Maybe we’d wish it were true. But it isn’t.
Just cause something is in writing, doesn’t mean it’s true.
The rights of the people come from exercising their power. The rest is sophistry. Pretty high-quality sophistry maybe.
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