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 the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation...
That preamble was a shot heard around the world at a time when communication wasn't immediate or global. The Second Continental Congress gathered in the Philadelphia heat in the summer of 1776 to vote for independence and also to formalize and record their rationale for doing so. The document that was produced from that summer, which was primarily authored by Thomas Jefferson, is one of the most concise and elegantly written political documents of its kind.
While America has spent centuries living up to the ideals of the Declaration, and the US Constitution, there still is much work to do today. Is our society perfect? No. Are there socioeconomic inequalities in America? Yes. Yet, with those challenges, America is still a model for the world, and it starts with our founding documents.
Civics and government education at all levels is woefully inadequate, and I have found in my professional travels even some adults who don't have a basic grasp of how the federal and state governments should work in complement to one another. In addition, many young people are not getting exposure to what is contained in the Declaration, or what's contained in the US Constitution and its amendments. If you don't know your rights, you can't speak up. That's a problem that I intend to help solve.
Watch this space for written updates.
You can also subscribe to TLO's YouTube page for video updates in the Tuk's Rules series, which will provide concise, non-partisan analysis of news about the government and some historical context to keep current events in perspective.