DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
by Dr. Larry Burris’s
06/30/2025

The 4th of July. A time for fireworks, picnics, hot dogs and ball games.
But perhaps also a time for a bit of reflection on what the Declaration of Independence means for freedom of expression.
Let’s start with “all men are created equal.” Generally, speaking, the framers of the Declaration believed everyone should think for themselves.
Each of us can examine the multitude of facts and opinions and then come to our own conclusions, without having to rely on a minister of truth, or an official version of what the truth is, or should be.
The writers believed in what is commonly known as the “free and open market place of ideas”; the notion that all ideas and opinions should be allowed to circulate, and that the truth would eventually come out of the ensuing debate and argument.
Or how about, “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it.” Although the declaration gives the people the right to change their form of government, it also says such changes should not be brought about for inconsequential reasons.

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Again, the writers are implying the people have to know what their government is doing, and that the people are willing to take the time and make the effort to keep themselves informed.
Another point, “He has called together legislative bodies at places distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.”
Here, the declaration speaks to the need for full access to the records of what the government is doing, or proposing to do. The declaration seems to be saying access to those records should be convenient to the people; records are to be easily accessible.
Of course, this is what the Freedom of Information Act, passed some 190 years after the declaration was ratified, is all about.
Interestingly, nearly 250 years after the event, we are still debating the meaning of the document and the responsibility of the people for its successful execution. And that debate is apparently the way the writers intended it to be. Open and robust debate with ideas freely exchanged without fear of retribution or punishment.
I’m Larry Burriss