On this day in 1776, the wise people of the American Colonies declared themselves independent from the British Crown. By doing so, they set in motion a series of events that leads us to this grand moment in the evolution of human communication.
Now, it’s true that the Constitution as we know it wasn’t framed until 1789 and that the Bill of Rights wasn’t even included in the original document. But the Declaration of Independence foreshadows the Bill of Rights with its reference to “certain unalienable Rights” beyond the “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” originally mentioned.
When the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791, the first of the ten amendments to the Constitution guaranteed that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Two hundred and sixteen years later, this specific articulation of an idea only broadly referred to in the Declaration of Independence guarantees us the right to speak the truth on our blogs and in our lives. Without the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the blogosphere could not exist.
So amid your fireworks and barbecues and times of good cheer today, please do take a moment to think about all that our nation’s founders accomplished when they pledged to one another, “our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
We at the Blog Business Summit say to you, “God Bless you and God Bless America.”
Happy Fourth of July!
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