My journey this week takes me to the 4th of July on Thursday. As a nation, we celebrate the freedom from England declared in 1776 in the Declaration of Independence — a national holiday. Some folks go fishing, some tube the river, families hold reunions, lots of good food is served and many watch fireworks in city parks and rivers at the end of the day. On the website, www.constitutionfacts.com, I found this fascinating fact: “Some of the most famous lines in the Declaration of Independence were inspired by Virginia’s Declaration of Rights by George Mason.
Mason said: "all men are born equally free and independent." Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence said: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
Jefferson listed man’s ‘inalienable rights’ as "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Paradoxically, I recently visited Monticello, and saw the slave graveyard and the quarters where his slaves lived.
