Tyler Morgan Professor Thompson English 343 October 23, 2011 Critical Response Paper #2: Declaration of Independence

In this paper I will discuss the Declaration of Independence and some of the important things I realized during and after reading it. First of all I have to admit that this is the first time I read it and at the age of 21 I am somewhat ashamed of that. It is not the most exciting thing to read, but I believe it is the most important piece of literature in American history. It is after all the Declaration of Independence and the birth of our country! In class we discussed many reasons why we believe that all schools dont make their students read this piece of literature; and I have struggled since to find a legitimate reason as to why I havent read it. Whenever I have discussed the Declaration of Independence in the past I would think that it was a letter simply stating that the colonies wanting to form their own union. Which is clearly not everything that goes into it. I never realized that they were breaking away from King George III of Great Britain and all the suffering that he caused among the people. I also never even knew that King George III was at all related to America; although it was before America he was still involved in the people of the land and a big reason why America broke away from Europe. At first when I think about how this is the first time I have read it I blame the school system. I think it is the school system that has failed me by not forcing me to

read it. But then again is it their fault? After looking at it in a mature way I blame myself. I consider myself American and I love this country, yet I have never thought to sit down on my own and read it and truly understand and respect how my country was born. A quote that I believe to be most important is very near the beginning and it says We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;(p.342) I have always heard that America is about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness but I never knew that it was in the Declaration of Independence, I just assumed it was a quote or something that some president quoted back in the day. To find out that the base of the country was born from this quote is amazing to me, because despite all the economic problems in the last five years I truly believe that this still holds true to America in the present. Some people are born into unfortunate circumstances and bad things do happen to people everyday, yet everyone still has the right to life, everyone still has liberty and if you pursue happiness and work hard for it, you can achieve true happiness. After trying to understand why I have never read the Declaration of Independence, I think about what goes into the making of something of such importance. The idea that a group of men could sit down and write up a document that demands that their land become its own is mind blowing to me. Thinking about something like this happening today seems nearly impossible, for example I imagine Alaskan politicians sitting down and doing the same thing to become their own

country or union. If something of this nature were to be written today how many people would jump on board? I imagine the creators would be removed before too many people jumped on their bandwagon. Could millions of Obama haters get together and demand they be set free from his rules? I doubt it; he would most likely just get impeached. This generation seems to be too concerned with creating a new status update or posting new pictures, and would most likely overthrow the likes of a Mark Zuckerburg from Facebook before they would even listen or lead the charge for such a change in history as the founding fathers did. After considering all the things that this piece of literature has done I still find it amazing that it was able to alter history in such a way. I cant imagine that in the year 2311 people will be reading such documents from the years 1995-2011. I dont see anything being even remotely as important, but then again that could be my ignorance since I never considered the real meaning of the Declaration of Independence the first 21 years of my life. Only time will tell, but coming to the realization that I dont know hardly anything about the true roots of America, I am going to make it a point to find out everything I can about America and get to know the true meaning of what it is to be American.