Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

They are documents that carry lofty expectations, loftier even than the lives of the men who wrote them. As we celebrate 250 years since the founding of the United States of America, how are we doing at living up to the spirit of these two foundational documents: the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States?

“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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

And then there's this:

“We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility… do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

One of my ancestors, Jonathan Dayton, was the youngest person to sign the U.S. Constitution. He was just 26 years old when he represented New Jersey at the Constitutional Convention. I'm guessing he wasn't much different from most of the men who were there.

He served in the military under the command of his father, Elias Dayton, as a teenager and was a captain by the time he was 19. He felt he wasn't experienced enough to be a delegate at that gathering. Still, he showed up. He later served as the third Speaker of the House.

Dayton was not a perfect man by any means. His political career was eventually damaged by his association with Aaron Burr. Yet he participated in the founding of a nation that was bigger than himself or any one person or political party because he wanted to leave the world a better place than he found it.

The older I get, the more I wonder if we've misunderstood what freedom really is. We often talk about freedom as something we possess, a collection of rights we defend. But perhaps the founders were asking something more of us. Perhaps freedom isn't simply the ability to choose whatever we want. Perhaps it's the responsibility to choose well.

It seems we may have lost our way a little as we think about the purpose of what we commemorate on July 4. While I hope my first Fourth of July in Las Cruces will reflect a certain unity, we live in a time of deep division.

The ideal on which this nation was founded — government by the people — assumes something important: that the people are willing to think, to listen and to exercise judgment. Too often today, we seem content to let someone else tell us what to think. Rather than openly and honestly listening to one another, we simply try to drown one another out.

What does it really mean to say it is "self-evident" that "all men (and women)" are created equal? Perhaps my opinion isn't more important than yours. Maybe I should do more listening and less talking. Certainly, I should lower my voice so I can hear what you have to say.

There are no qualifiers in the phrase "all men." Does that mean it also applies to people who weren't privileged to be born in a place where freedom reigns? I think it does. Each of us, no matter where we live, what we believe or what we do for work, is endowed by a higher power with agency, the freedom to make choices about our own lives.

In many places around the world, that agency is limited because power is not derived from the consent of the governed. Looking at our own nation, I wonder if we sometimes limit our own agency by surrendering our thinking to someone else's voice instead of exercising the responsibility that freedom requires.

Freedom isn't about what can be done for me. With the agency to choose comes the responsibility to choose well. Instead of asking what government can do for me, what can I do for someone else? What can I do for everyone else? That seems much closer to the idea of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" than believing I need to be more right, more respected or more powerful than someone else.

As we remember why the patriots of 250 years ago chose to break free from an oppressive government, I hope we can also look inward. I hope we choose to lift those around us, listen to people with different opinions and pause long enough to learn something instead of simply trying to win an argument.

Perhaps that's what those remarkable words from 1776 and 1787 were always pointing toward. Not simply a nation where people are free to do as they please, but one where free people willingly choose to serve, to listen, to build and to lift.

If we do that, then maybe "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" become more than words on old pieces of parchment. They become the way a free people choose to live.