Late last year, December 2009, I was asked by the Inter-American Development Bank to participate in a project to look at eGovernment for the Brazilian Government.
During the time I worked on that effort, I got to know a number of the IADB staff. One of them who was born in Spain, married an American wife, and now lives in the US, told me that in his opinion there was one particular thing that made America unique. It was that unlike any other country America was founded on the principal that all Governmental power was derived from the people. In most countries, he said, the opposite was the case. In other countries, rights were conferred by the Government.
I am not enough a student of International Political Science to know how accurate that conversation was. But I do believe in the first part, that is that the premise of the American experiment was that Governmental power was “derived from” not “established for”.
Quoting from the Declaration of Independence, a document which will be often quoted today, July 4th, but not paid enough attention to:
“”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.”
As a second generation American, all of my grandparents were born in Europe, I remain thankful that I am able to be a small part of this continuing attempt to expand the barriers to freedom that America has and continues to represent. I continue to believe that freedom is at its most basic not “freedom from” but “freedom to”.
While I worry that currently we are losing our way a bit, like most American’s for these over 200 years, I remain optimistic that the experiment will continue unabated.
Happy July 4th to all friends of liberty.