July 8 marked the 245th anniversary of the “first public reading of the Declaration of Independence outside of Philadelphia,” which occurred on July 8, 1776. As Michael Mancuso reports for the NJ.com, the reenactment took place ‘in Trenton, in front of what was then the Hunterdon County Courthouse on Warren Street.”
Mychal Holloway, 18, the Boys & Girls Club of Trenton Youth of the Year, was one of “18 other people in reading sections of the declaration faithfully.” She was the one to recite the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” a phrase that she was so excited about that “she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to just say the words -- she almost wanted to sing them.” “I wanted to sing it out so bad!,” she said.
As Mancuso reports,
Algernon Ward is a lifelong Trenton resident and activist who now works as a Historical Interpreter at the Old Barracks Museum. He was entertaining children from the Boys & Girls Club before the program, giving an impromptu history lesson tailored to his very young audience.
When asked about the position of people of color during those days, Ward shared, “At the time it meant very little to nothing to Black Americans because at that particular point we were still mainly enslaved here in the United States.”
He expressed that for them, the signing was more symbolic. “It was very inspiring. It was a high aspiration, but the reality was not close for African Americans. It’s our job up from that time to this, is to make America live up to that pledge, to that declaration.”
My emphasis. So far, so good. It’s refreshing in this age of anti-Americanism to hear the principles of the Declaration extolled and framed properly -- as a philosophic road map to achieving full liberty and justice for all. Of course, what those principles mean is the key question. In that vein, the next paragraphs are disturbing:
Ward is such a local mainstay that he himself is pictured in the 33-by-65 foot mural depicting the original event in 1776, portrayed as a uniformed onlooker.
The words spoken at the ceremony are still meaningful to him, he said. “They are more than mere words to me. It’s not a performance. It is an aspiration. The American aspiration.”
“I know at this very moment they’re voting in Texas to take away voting rights, and in Georgia, so are we done? We’re still a work-in-progress and until every American has the same access to the fruits of our country, we’re not done yet.” *
It’s a shame that Ward had to resort to cheap political smear propagandizing when addressing a “very young audience” in regard to Georgia and Texas. But the last sentence is particularly egregious, pointing in the exact opposite meaning of the Declaration.
Does “access to the fruits of our country” mean access to the fruits of liberty or to the fruits of other people’s labor? If the latter, that would be an endorsement of slavery, not liberty. If by the “fruits of our country” Ward means economic “rights” such as a “right” to education or healthcare, then a “right” to such values as education or healthcare means others must be forced to provide them through taxes and regulations. That is involuntary servitude, violating some people’s rights to life, liberty, and property for the unearned benefit of others. This makes a mockery of the freedom to pursue one’s own happiness, and to keep the fruits of one’s efforts, without coercive interference from government or fellow citizens.
Does “equal access” mean equal protection of individual rights before the law, or equal life outcomes—egalitarianism—which is impossible in a country that guarantees to every individual the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Inequality is the corollary of a free society, since individuals’ achievements in economics, academics, art, sports, and virtually every other field of human endeavor depends on widely varying individual characteristics, moral standing, and circumstances. Human beings are not equal in any respect but the rights necessary to take unfettered life-supporting, goal-directed action. Rights are not a legal or moral claim on other’s lives, liberties, or properties. “Equal access” to life outcomes means a war against individual achievement.
The Declaration of Independence is under attack, both overtly, and covertly. By twisting the meaning of the Founding principles, statists destroy it. I do not know if Algernon Ward is in the second camp, or if he is just sloppy with words. I suspect the former, based on his mischaracterization of the Texas and Georgia election laws, in which he regurgitates Leftist hysteria, not fact.
Whether I’m right or wrong about Ward, we must always be on guard against the subversion of America’s Founding principles. The self-evident truths spoken of in the Declaration of Independence refers to equal freedom to pursue personal happiness, not a legal guarantee of happiness. Vague, imprecise explanations such as heard by Ward’s young audience is fraught with danger for America as a free country, and for the fight “to make America live up to that pledge, to that declaration.”
* [This last paragraph appears only in the digital subscriber version of the article.]
Related Reading:
‘Harrison Bergeron’ vs the Right Way to Address the ‘Achievement Gap’ in Education
Nike Shamefully Turns it’s Back on Americanism
July 4, 1776: Words that Will Never Be Erased
The Declaration of Independence
Atlas Shrugged: America’s Second Declaration of Independence—Onkar Ghate
On This Constitution Day, Remember the Declaration of Independence
The Conscience of the Constitution: The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Liberty – Timothy Sandefur
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?--Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852
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