Fri, Jul 4, 2008 (2:07 a.m.)

Today, people across the nation will gather to celebrate the 232-year-old experiment that is the United States of America.

The 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 set in motion one of the greatest and most revolutionary notions in history — that people have the right and responsibility to govern themselves independent of an oppressor.

With an eloquence hardly seen since, the words written by Thomas Jefferson still serve the nation they helped to create. To this day, Americans remain “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Still, although this historic document enumerated these rights, it did not promise that the pursuit of them would be easy. And it did not ensure that these rights were extended to all who dwelled within the United States.

Slavery remained in existence for nearly 100 more years; American Indians faced persecution well into the 20th century, and women were not afforded the right to vote for their own representation until 1921.

Nonetheless, the Declaration of Independence fueled a rebellion in which Americans took control of their destiny.

Today our nation faces such challenges as a struggling economy, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, underfunded health care and education systems and environmental crises we are not certain can be averted.

And yet people from other countries still seek refuge here — some of them crossing our borders illegally and even dying in the process — because the words and promises of a 232-year-old document are worth those risks.

Certainly, our nation has some daunting choices and decisions ahead and is confronted by serious political divisions that make resolving these issues more difficult. But we can do better in trying to overcome these obstacles and work for the common good by remembering our Declaration of Independence, in which “we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”