Declaration still works

Two hundred-thirty-two years ago yesterday the Second Continental Congress began debating the Declaration of Independence. Friday we will celebrate the vote they took four days later to declare independence from Britain.

The ideas presented by the young Virginia lawyer Thomas Jefferson were radical at the time. His draft of the Declaration of Independence posited that governmental power flowed from the people, and people had rights no government could take away.

Those "self-evident" truths -- that all men are created equal; that they are endowed with the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that government bows to the consent of the governed -- formed the basis of our system of government. Thirteen years later those same ideas toppled the French monarchy.

Today we celebrate those ideas with every election, every letter to a congressional representative or senator, every phone call to a council member. We celebrate these self-evident truths in reading (and writing) the newspaper or any of the thousands of magazines aimed at various interests.

We celebrate those original ideas when we amend our Constitution. Those ideas proposed 232 years ago still drive our government.

Yet we still debate the Declaration of Independence today. While the courts hear arguments on the status of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and the administration does what it can to justify spying on U.S. citizens, we debate the equality of men and inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

But the fact we can question the administration proves the Declaration of Independence still works. We urge our readers to celebrate its principles.