Is it the Fourth?

Those were the last words recorded of Thomas Jefferson. He had authored the Declaration of Independence exactly fifty years before he took his last breath. He died on July 4, 1826. That same day, his great rival and dear friend, John Adams, died five hundred sixty-two miles to the North. Adams' last words were: "Thomas Jefferson still survives."

Do those self-evident truths of which Jefferson wrote so eloquently in the Declaration mean anything today? Following last month's Supreme Court rulings, do any words mean anything today?

"I have never had a political idea that did not come from the Declaration of Independence," said Abraham Lincoln as he raised the American flag over Independence Hall in Philadelphia on February 22, 1861. And he added in an uncharacteristically emotional tone for him: He would rather be assassinated where he stood than surrender any portion of that great Declaration -- or a single star of that Union's flag.

Read the entire article by Bob Morrison here.