July 4th, a couple of weeks ago, hosts on National Public Radio read, word for word, the Declaration of Independence. I heard the meaning of the words for the very first time.

hen 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 theLaws 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.
 
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. 
 
My Sixth Great Grandfather, John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, signed his name to this Declaration of Independence. He was the first of fifty-six men to sign the document. He signed his name large and boldly, unafraid. But from that day forward, he knew he was a marked man.
 
Now it is time for me, a grandson, to add my name to that list.
 
For too many years I believed I lived in a bubble, protected, different, special. 
 
Everyone thinks they live in a bubble, their own little bubble, protected, different and special. 
 
In our self-absorbed little bubbles, we are deafened by refusing to listen to the cries of the oppressed, believing, as well, that we are not. We are blinded by the false perception of our separate situations. We are muted by the fear of speaking out and of being one noticed. We are weasels. 
 
And POP goes this weasel!
 
This bubble is burst, the placenta breached. Birthed is New Understanding and Redeemed Purpose.
 
The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, Safety and Happiness.
 
Every day, the Earth rolls forward away from us at over one-thousand miles-an-hour. The world races around the sun at sixty-seven-thousand miles-an-hour, another year spent in the thick gut of indulgent ignorance. We are falling backwards in time, ages looming dark again, just around the corner. We are a world dumbed-down, thick with the slick molasses of mediocrity.
 
We all feel this. We know this. We fear this. We struggle to keep inflated our precious little bubble because we think Hell is outside us. 
 
It is not. 
 
Hell is being trapped inside a tiny little bubble believing we are safe, protected, different and special, when we are not.
 
I heard the meaning of the words for the very first time. The words are a DECLARATION of Independence.
 
de·clare  (d-klâr)
1. To make known formally or officially. 
2. To state emphatically or authoritatively; affirm.
3. To reveal or make manifest; show.
4. To make a full statement.
5. To make a declaration.
6. To proclaim one's support, choice, opinion, or resolution.
 
Independance starts by popping our own bubbles, by stepping outside ourselves and dissing the "Disease-of-Me". The Disease-of-Me slimes its putrid path through society. Its sticky track reeks black selfish need and yellow complacency. In our bubbles swim the DNA of Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Slothfulness, Wrath, Envy and Pride, the DNA of Fear.
 
These are the Seven Senators of our own "Me-Made-Government" called FEAR. It is our right and our duty to throw off such Government.
 
When we've busted our own bubbles and emerged out of Fear, THEN we can take on D.C.

PS: General Washington, I think, would like to disassociate his name from the District of Columbia.