The Declaration of Independence: a Document for the Future

Another Independence Day has now come and gone, and with it the usual fireworks, and parades, and occasional thoughts of what this day might mean to all of us. It means something about Freedom, and Liberty, and isn't there something in there about
Happiness? Well, that day is now over, so it's back to work, isn't it. But it's worth taking a few more minutes to consider two specific areas of the Declaration, because they set a social precedent that is worth reconsidering in a bit more detail.

The beginning of the second paragraph are words to treasure for all eternity. They set forth the basic concept of all human relationships, and relationships with governments for all people for all time. "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."

Now we haven't been able to do this in this country, but we are trying. The "tricky" adjustment we made, in the beginning, to make blacks 3/5ths of a person, was just our human frailty again, trying to "get around" a difficult standard that we couldn't meet at that time. But we eventually did, didn't we, it only took us  about two hundred years. But the point is, it is the words in our Declaration of Independence that lead us in this direction. What magnificence.

This statement includes the basic ideals that all nations must strive to emulate if their people are to have a  share of human dignity.  Not all countries, however, do this, and the recent encounter of the Somali pirates with the Russian commandos clearly illustrates this deficiency in Russian politics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT6WI4SBwx4

After the pirates captured a Russian ship, the Russian commandos boarded the ship, and took the pirates prisoner. As the above link to the film shows, the Somalis were placed in their boat, and sent off to die in a massive explosion presumably controlled by the Russian soldiers.

When I first heard about this incident, I thought " the Russians know how to handle these SOBs don't they," but on second thought I realized their behavior was based on an absence of other, more fundamental principles.

It costs money and time to handle captured pirates. Food, guards, courts,

transportation, all these things must be managed to bring these criminals to justice. The Declaration, instructs us that these people have "certain unalienable rights" so we do all these time consuming and expensive things because we believe that each individual has rights that are beyond our government's powers. It's our obligation. The Russians, on the other hand, do not have a "Declaration of Independence." Unfortunately, they have treated these criminals as objects, and not as people. I for one would rather live in our "Declaration society." I only realized this when I looked at this video (I suggest you do it), and thought about our Declaration of Independence.

One other point needs mentioning. Stalin tried to eliminate  all religion from Russia under his rule. He did this because he wanted to create a society in which the government, in the eyes of the people,  was supreme. In the United States, even though there are forces that are fighting against it, our founders believed in "in God we trust." Our government is not supreme--and that's evident as we  watch the Congress try to handle our debt crisis.

One other area of our Declaration deserves mention as we pass through this July 4th, and that's the very end: "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

I've been at a lot of meetings in my life: Board meetings, medical society meetings, and on, and on, and on. I have, many times, imagined that the Chairman of one of these would say, "I have motion on the floor that we pledge our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. Do I have a second?" At that moment I imagine that the hall would be as quite as a tomb.

So next July 4th, I suggest, you think about the depth of commitment of the Founders. It is hard to match today. The only group I know of that actually tries to do this is our military, and they should be venerated for this. Also, think about how difficult it has been for us to live up to the promise of "all men are created equal," but also think about how each of us benefits from this laudable standard. I wouldn't want it any other way, because that's our promise of Liberty.

Why So Much Trouble with Health Care Reform?

The battle is getting brutally fierce now at the town meetings. Congress folks are seeing the righteous anger of the people. Why, one might ask, is this happening? Don't we have a "broken health care system" and doesn't everyone want health care reform NOW!? Why are people acting so vociferously against this proposed legislation?

I believe that health care reform threatens the indispensable fundamental principles that have formed the foundation of the social structure of the United States: individualism, freedom, and most of all our basic distrust of government. In addition, there is charity. Americans are generous and they resent government stealing from one group of citizens to give to another group, especially when government acts like it deserves all the credit. All of the money that our government possesses has been taken(by force) from us citizens. I think most of us are tirelessly laboring daily to possess a little property, and watching our government throw it around ad lib (without reading the bills) is infuriating to us all.

Individualism runs through America's collective soul. Individualism also represents a quality of what is means to be an American. We are supposed to be FREE. Free to do what we wish, make decisions on your own, and free to face the consequences. Our freedoms define America, and give it the social energy for economic expansion and individual opportunity for success.

The problem with health care reform (and with the dreaded "public option" in particular) is that it threatens everything that represents FREEDOM. Will the government control what kind of medical care we can have? Will it control medical decisions so that we can't trust our doctors? Will it attempt to hasten our demise to lessen the entitlement debt it owes us- and that we were forced to pay for- as we get old? Doesn't our government have a fundamental conflict of interest in this debate anyway? After all, government is looking for ways to control costs, and our death would save the government money? These are genuinely frightening ideas because if they come to pass, and we can imagine they might, our freedoms will be taken away.

What it finally comes down to is our instinctive distrust of government. If this health care reform occurs, we are going to give our government a lot more control over our lives and our personal choices. As that woman in Philadelphia said the other day,"medicaid is broke, Medicare is going broke, Social Security is going broke, and the cash for clunkers program is failing. How can we give you (to Arlen Specter) control over another one-sixth of the economy? No way Senator, no way!"

I think we need to remember that the statue in the New York harbor is called "The Statue of Liberty." It is not the statue of safety through government handouts. The fundamental problem with this movement (appropriate term) is that it threatens the essence of what America is supposed to mean as a country of personal freedom. Somewhere in this demagogic attack on the previous promise of our God given freedoms is the source of the unrest with this Democratic health care push. Yes, we do need change in health care, but not because we have the worst system in the world, but because it needs some changes. What we do not want is the undoing of the essence of our social structure by allowing our government to make all of these personal decisions for us. We can't trust them now, can we?

What we need is tort reform first, but politics is preventing that, and that "prevention" adds to the distrust of this whole movement. Next, we need controls on the insurance companies to make the vast majority of the health care dollars flow into the "care" system, and not into the pockets of the insurance bureaucrats. Finally we need a futile care law that basically says that when three doctors determine that a situation is "futile" that the family has one week to understand or the care is withdrawn in spite of objections. At that point only comfort measures are given.

Oh, there are other things we could do like tamper with the "preexisting condition" problem, or waste and fraud in the system itself. Yes, we do need change but a government takeover is not the way to proceed. I do not believe that, justifiably, there is enough trust in our government to allow sort of change that the liberals are proposing. It threatens too many of our guaranteed freedoms. Remember, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

James P. Weaver, M.D.,FACS