Only two weeks until the celebration of our nation’s independence. If you have never read the Declaration of Independence, or it has been many years since you last put eyes on it, I highly suggest brushing up a little.

The Declaration is one of those documents that seems to change each time you read it. Every new viewing reveals a little more about the document itself, or about the person who is reading it.

Though a few things have changed significantly in the past 235 years, some things stay the same. People are still dissatisfied with their government, and still like to provide a listing of the things they think are going wrong. True, today we do it on the internet or by writing shocking “tell-alls,” but the fundamentals are still there.

In addition to being one of the most important steps in founding a new country, the Declaration is also pretty exciting stuff—tales of piracy, pillaging, and espionage. Although you do have to read a little between the lines.
The thing that struck me with this reading of the Declaration was the phrasing “united States of America.” No capitalization on the “united.” For some reason that made the word stick out even more. The united States. Not the consolidated or conglomerated or loosely tired, but united.

At first the word was meant as an adjective. It was only later that it would grow into a part of the official title of our homeland. It was a promise that although the individual was free to live like he wanted, we would all stand together and fight together as a single unit should our security be threatened.

I like that idea. I think that even though things have changed a lot, we still have that resiliency once found in the rebels and patriots who made a hardscrabble way of it. You can still see it in the headlines today—we are always breaking apart and coming back together.

Happy Birthday, Miss America. Some days you don’t look a day over 20!