By William Tyler Page

In 1917, William Tyler Page of Maryland won a nationwide contest for "the best summary of American political faith."  The U.S. House of Representatives accepted the statement as the American's Creed on April 3, 1918.  Its two paragraphs reminds us that responsibilities are the sources of rights.  It deserves to be read and recited.  Today very few people have even heard of it.  
   
      I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
     I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it; to support its Constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag; and to defend it against all enemies. 

The Declaration of Independence

          Without the courage and determination of our Nation's first leaders we would not have the opportunity to celebrate our Independence.  Consider using our country's past to kick-start your new year with your student council.  Perhaps your school is in need of a revamp of its constitution.  If so, it may be important to turn to our own Declaration of Independence and Constitution for inspiration and motivation.  Celebrate this year's 4th of July by reading this amazing piece of literature.

          The opening lines of the Declaration of Independence provide one of our most important moral anchors.  If we truly hold these liberties to be gifts from God, we realize the moral duty to respect, preserve, and defend those rights for others.  

          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 he 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. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 

JULY Quote

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
--George Bernard Shaw