commonplace blog 2

“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 powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Today for the commonplace blog, I selected a document that we may be aware of, but do not truly understand. The Declaration of Independence was one of the most influential writings in the history of our country. It was a letter to the King of England, but more importantly served as a form of persuasion to all of the colonists. It convinced thousands of people to overthrow the status quo, and start a new philosophy of government. We all are familiar with many of the authors near the time of the American Revolution: Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Few people know what the tools that made them so affective were. Looking at the first two sentences of the Declaration of Independence, the first thing that comes to my eye is the odd unorthodox punctuation. Words such as Rights, Life, Liberty, People, Government, and Safety are all capitalized. Jefferson, was not worried with grammatical perfection, rather, he wanted to emphasize the words that the colonists were fighting for. Also, Jefferson uses broad adjectives such as Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness that could inspire anyone to fight on their side. Many people who fought in the Revolutionary War were not greatly affected by the change in Government. They did not suddenly come out of poverty, or to be able to have people volunteer to give their life for a cause when it will not affect them greatly is a powerful thing. This sentence structure is hard to imitate because it lends itself no matter what to be a run on. Here is an example of the sentence structure in a “modern day” Declaration of Independence.

We as citizens of the world agree, that we are sick of over pollution, that we are tired of genocide, that we are untitled to answers, and that we need a change.