Today we celebrate the 234th anniversary of the American experiment in Human Rights. In declaring their independence from Great Britain, the founding fathers risked their property, their honor and their lives for the reasons outlined in their signed declaration. Eleven years later, after a bitter revolution and the failure of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, the current U.S. Constitution was adopted in 1787 and this nation as it is currently structured came into being.
In these times it is easy to forget that this nation is constantly changing and constantly evolving. It was Chief Justice John Marshall who said in 1821, “The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their will, and lives only by their will.” We, the people, have changed this living document, the Constitution, 27 times in order to make it reflect our will and to make “a more perfect union.” This is the greatness of this nation. We are a people who are resilient in hard times and not afraid of the future or change. Today celebrates a beginning and the founding of an idea; an idea whose time had come and whose dream shall not falter because we the people shall not permit it to fail.
