Is the Declaration of Independence Still Relevant?

When I was at CPAC a few weeks ago, I decided to stay an extra day and do the Washington tour. Now as someone who lives in Los Angeles, it is simply shocking to me how much history is within walking distance of the Washington monument, say.

At the Air and Space Museum, you can see John Glenn’s FRIENDSHIP 7 capsule and a replica of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module (you can tell it’s a replica, and not one of the built but unflown actual LMs, because the Lunar Module is so fragile it cannot support itself on its own legs in the Earth’s gravity field.)

Just a few blocks away is Ford’s Theater, and across the street, the Peterson House where Abraham Lincoln spent his final eight hours of agony. To go from that dingy, cheap little flophouse and then to the marble temple at the far end of the Mall produces a profound reaction in the human heart. But nothing I saw affected me as did the Declaration of Independence. I expected to be filled with reverence and awe. Instead, I was overwhelmed with despair.

My friends, the Declaration of Independence is gone: irreparably faded. And I fear that the ideals so boldly pronounced in that document are also fading from the pages of society. A few years ago, they opened the Super Bowl telecast by having players from both teams simply read lines from the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, and the switchboards were flooded with thousands of irate calls protesting this “right-wing propaganda.”

And we who work in Hollywood know that the kind of movies this town has churned out for forty years now must certainly bear a heavy responsibly for not only the fading of those ideals, but for the active attempt to erase them as quickly as possible.

But despair and resignation are, in fact, the goals of those would see these imperishable words fade from our lives. We can renew those words, in a very simple and heartfelt way.

One answer is in the video, and simply as one citizen to another, I would encourage you to repeat what I personally did for my own personal benefit. You will feel a thousand times better about yourself and your country, and that sense of optimism and pride is kryptonite to the people who wish her harm.

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