The wind blew gently through the open window as the writer dipped the quill pen once more, he had been working all night, writing, rewriting, and then rewriting again. This had to be perfect, it was not just another plea for equality among British subjects or another request that taxes be lowered . . . this was something much more. It was a Declaration. Not one of regret, remorse, or reproof, it was something that the temporary adjusting of numbers could not fix. This was a Declaration of Independence! A forming of a new nation, a nation united, for one cause . . . FREEDOM.
It had been a long time in coming, but everyone knew, including its hardest opponents, that before these colonies would buckle under the unfair burdens they would break off ties and trade from the land that claimed them as their own. Months would pass with no word from messengers that had been sent to the parliament to argue the point of the oppressed. Then, without warning, soldiers began entering the houses and demanding a place to sleep and food for themselves and their animals. If you refused, you were considered a traitor to the Crown and locked in prison for however long they desired.
This was not the new world the pilgrims had sailed to. This was not new at all, it was the same old world they had left, with the same old problems and persecution. The only thing new was the amount of harassment that they had to endure. It had never been this heavy before. With each addition the backs of the downtrodden grew more and more unwilling to bend, something was about to brake, and no one thought it would be the colonist, at least not now.
The candle on the table was almost burnt out, down to the last bit of wax and wick. It seemed to be a glowing allegory of the times in which the writer lived. The world had lived as long as it dared on the backs of those that gave it fuel. It was time for a new era in which every man, woman, and child could live unbridled by the ideas of one man or a group of men appointed by the amount of money they had.
It was time for a new candle, a new glowing fire to light the dark abyss of what man had created. It was time for the realization that all men were created equal in the sight of God. It was time for men to be free.
The tall, slender man stood from the wooden desk he had been an almost fixture of for the past few weeks. His shoulders slumped from exhaustion, yet they had a look of pride to them. His foot steps were heavy against the wooden floor, but his walk was a little different. It wasn’t that of a man bound by the beliefs of another, it was the fluid and powerful stride of a free man. “It’s done!” He announced to himself. He looked over the pages and began to read and something seemed to whisper in his ear that this time everything would be different, and the world would finally hear the roar of the sleeping lion.
The words of that writer still echo across the ears of every race, creed and color that is born into this Great . . . New . . . World.
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation . . . 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.” The Declaration of Independence |
