Column: This July 4, take a look at Declaration of Independence

Ahhh, Fourth of July Weekend. Memorial Day kicks off the season and Labor Day closes it down, but the Fourth of July is a pure summer fun holiday.

I love it. I love the barbecues, the picnics, the day off and, of course, the fireworks.

But every year, I take 15 minutes away from the hot dogs and beer to read the document that started it all, the Declaration of Independence. It is the reason for the season, if you will.

Unlike the Constitution, which is a working document designed to create and maintain a government, the Declaration is a statement of ideals. It is a philosophical study of human rights and government, as well as a catalog of the exact reasons why we over here on this side of the pond were cutting our ties with Mother England.

But the Declaration is so much more than flipping the bird at King George. At its heart, America has always been more of an idea than a country and the Declaration lays out that idea in no uncertain terms.

Governments exist, according to our founding document, in order to “secure” the natural rights of man. On top of that, a government draws its power not from some inbred, blue-blood family line or a mystical whisper from God (or as Monty Python so brilliantly put it, “You can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you!”), but from the consent of the governed.

That’s a pretty radical idea, when you think about it. Even today – as evidenced by the chaos surrounding Iran’s most recent “election” – the idea that governments exist solely to protect a person’s Natural Rights is pretty punk rock, let alone in 1776, when the Divine Right of Kings was still a real thing and not a punch line.

Even the idea that there were certain rights that are “unalienable” and bestowed the creator is blockbuster concept. In fact, we’ve spent the last 233 years trying to figure out how to live up to that.

The Declaration only lists three of those rights: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. However, lest you think those are the only rights you have, the language used by Thomas Jefferson makes it clear that those are only three “among these” rights that all men possess simply by being alive.

Think about that, we are a nation founded on the very concept of the “pursuit of happiness.” That’s just cool.

The Declaration also lays the groundwork for future revolutions, by reminding us why we have governments, and stating that when any government “becomes destructive to these ends” it is not just the right, but the “duty” of the people to alter or abolish such a government and reorganize.

Jefferson warns against doing it for “light and transient causes” but at the same time, he reminds us that mankind is more likely to suffer through when “evils are sufferable” before beginning the list of nearly 30 very specific reasons as to why that was no longer the case for the American colonists, who from that day forward were “absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown” and were now “Free and Independent States.”

Alternating between the lyrical and philosophical and the downright nitty-gritty of colonial life, the Declaration carries no real power, but without it, the Constitution is at a loss, as its sole purpose is to try and create a government that would live up to the ideals laid out by Jefferson and the rest on that humid July day in Philadelphia.

And at only 1,500 words, it’s a quick read. Do yourself a favor this July 4 holiday and take a break from pursuing your happiness to read it over. I do every summer and every time it serves to remind me exactly why the United States is so special and what it is we as a nation and a people are supposed to stand for.

Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled barbecue. Happy Fourth of July.