Happy Independence Day!

Heading to Detroit for a wedding - have a great 4th of July ... and take a read of the document that gave you a 3 day weekend:

"In Congress, July 4, 1776,
THE UNANIMOUS
DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

When 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 the Laws 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.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The
history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries
and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute
Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid
world.

[look here for all the
"wrongs" - there are a BUNCH]

In every stage of these Oppressions, We
have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions
have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus
marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a
free People.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren.
We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend
an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the
circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their
native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our
common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt
our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of
justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity,
which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind,
Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of
the united States of America, in GENERAL CONGRESS assembled, appealing to the
Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions, DO, in the Name,
and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly PUBLISH and
DECLARE, That these United Colonies are, and of Right, ought to be free and
Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British
Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Bri
tain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that, as FREE and INDEPENDENT
STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances,
establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES
may of right do. 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. "