Fourth of July Homework

It's the Fourth of July, the birth date of the United States. I am planning on purchasing a paper copy of the New York Times today and reading a re-print of the Declaration of Independence again, imaged in its original script. Somehow that full-page run of the document on July 4 always adds an intimacy to the text. One can feel quite close to the authors. If you haven't recently, I urge you to check it out and read through the whole thing methodically.

No matter how cynical you may be, you have to admit that the thing is well drawn. Well conceived from the perspective of drumming up support among the population of North America and from the perspective of explaining the thinkers' rationale to other countries. In many senses, the document is evidence of some truly transformative thinking, and it is a crisp articulation of the means for implementing the transformation. I haven't read it yet today, so my memory will be less crisp. But I am looking forward to even the introduction - "When in the course of human events...." And "We hold these truths to be self evident...."

These men were capable of placing their lives and fortunes in a global context, and they drew on their thorough understanding of government and related philosophy. The world can be proud of their accomplishments, and it can learn from them. As I have written before on this page, my intuition tells me that the world is now in need of another transformation in the conception and deployment of sovereign power. I have not yet fleshed out what that transformation should be or how it should be driven. But I consider that the US Declaration of Independence will be powerful guidance for those who want to think "outside of the box" in repairing the world.

So for all you US presidential candidates and campaign teams so breathily criticizing each other for the same old things, please take some time today to think about the Declaration. Not just as another school book text that was shown to you and explained generically as the United States' founding document. Not just as another image and sound bite proving your patriotism once again. But as a continuation of your education and training in governing creatively and conceiving solutions that exceed anything ever seen before.

I would happily vote for the candidate who takes this path of self-education and is able to propose and to drum up US and global support for the next welfare-enhancing transformation. As for those of you who prefer to bicker about whether it is more evil to pardon Scooter Libby for criminally outing a CIA agent or to pardon Marc Rich for criminally avoiding the tax laws, I think I'll take a pass.