We are all beneficiaries of the audacious gumption and
amazing vision of our nation�s founders, who built our republic of solid
stuff and, like the soaring cathedrals of medieval Europe, constructed it to
last through the ages.
We are all beneficiaries of the audacious gumption and
amazing vision of our nation�s founders, who built our republic of solid
stuff and, like the soaring cathedrals of medieval
Europe, constructed it to last through the ages.
�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. That to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed.�
This passage from the Declaration of Independence is pure
genius, the first sentence soaring to new heights in its eloquent expression
of human rights, the second succinctly noting how they should be obtained:
through �the consent of the governed.�
Every year on July 4, we celebrate this Declaration, as
the spark that ignited a flame of freedom, hope and justice that still burns
brightly nearly 240 years later. As we enter a presidential election year,
we should keep this extraordinary passage in our thoughts as we exercise our
right to vote. That right was hard-won by our nation�s founders, and has
been hard-kept over the centuries by countless brave American men and women.
It�s appropriate, though, to remember how these rights we
enjoy first took flight. It began when 56 leading citizens from the 13
original colonies signed and sent this bold Declaration of Independence to
the King of England, thereby risking their lives, their wealth, their honor,
and everything else, in the cause of liberty for themselves and their fellow
colonists. Among this group were seven prominent Virginians � George Wythe,
Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr.,
Francis Lightfoot Lee, and Carter Braxton.
The easy route � the simple route, the safe route � for
all of these signers, of course, would have been � to do nothing.
And yet, they chose instead to risk all by signing this
bold challenge to King George III, this assertion of freedom forever marking
their pen strokes as
true profiles in courage. After all, how many of us in
the modern age would be willing to risk everything for an untested
principle, especially if we were as prominent and well-to-do as most of the
Founding Fathers?
In the bittersweet road ballad �Me and Bobby McGee,�
Janis Joplin sang that �freedom�s just another word for nothin� left to
lose�; the Founding Fathers, on the other hand, had plenty left to lose, yet
still put their lives on the line. If it seems difficult for us today to
understand such extraordinary mettle, it�s at least partly because we spend
our days navigating through a steady shower of cyber news and social media
posts that drench us with stories confusing celebrity with heroism, athletic
skill with courage, inconvenience with sacrifice.
We are all beneficiaries of the audacious gumption and
amazing vision of our nation�s founders, who built our republic of solid
stuff and, like the soaring cathedrals of medieval Europe, constructed it to
last through the ages.
And as the passage above from the Declaration of
Independence makes clear, governments are the instrument of the people, not
the reverse, and are created as a way for us to secure our rights to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Establishing these rights, and
maintaining them, is the responsibility of the people, of all of us.
Our nation�s founders created a masterpiece of political
functionality, a near-perfect governmental system that�s precisely balanced
to correct the injustices of imperfect people, ensuring rule by the majority
while protecting the rights of those in the minority. Nothing before or
since has come close to matching our republic�s functional elegance, this
invention of wonderful utility and wondrous design.
And with few exceptions, this system has provided us with
over 225 years� worth of free elections and peaceful transfers of power,
from George Washington to Barack Obama, featuring political parties ranging
from Democratic Republicans to Whigs, Democrats, Republicans and
Independents from all points on the political spectrum.
In this month�s issue, you�ll find our annual Virginia
State Legislative Guide. In it are photos and contact information on the 140
members of the General Assembly, plus the three statewide officeholders,
Governor McAuliffe, Lieutenant Governor Northam, and Attorney General
Herring.
The General Assembly begins its deliberations on Jan. 13.
We heartily encourage you to use our guide to stay in touch with legislators
on the issues important to you and your family.
By doing so, you�ll be paying homage in a small but
significant way to the sacrifices and the vision of this nation�s remarkable
founders.
