Today is the Fourth of July. The anniversary of the day the Declaration of Independence was approved, it was signed later, by the Continental Congress. <a href="http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/">Read the document</a>. You want to talk about awe inspiring, this is it.<br />n<br />n<blockquote>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.<br />n<br />nWe 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. </blockquote><br />n<br />nWe are all created equally. What a visionary thought and idea that even they didn't uphold completely and had to work towards.<br />n<br />nI bring this information up to compare the ideal of what the Founding Fathers were striving for with the reality of today. How the people of today view their responsibility as free citizens of this country and how they use their rights of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" to their own end.<br />n<br />n<a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/STABBING_VIDEO?SITE=MTBIL&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" >Kan. shoppers step over stabbing victim</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>As stabbing victim LaShanda Calloway lay dying on the floor of a convenience store, five shoppers, including one who stopped to take a picture of her with a cell phone, stepped over the woman, police said.<br />n<br />nThe June 23 situation, captured on the store's surveillance video, got scant news coverage until a columnist for The Wichita Eagle disclosed the existence of the video and its contents Tuesday.<br />n<br />nPolice have refused to release the video, saying it is part of their investigation.<br />n<br />n"It was tragic to watch," police spokesman Gordon Bassham said Tuesday. "The fact that people were more interested in taking a picture with a cell phone and shopping for snacks rather than helping this innocent young woman is, frankly, revolting."</blockquote><br />n<br />nThere we go, that's how people view their rights as a citizen of this country. The right to not help one another. The right to ignore our fellow citizens need for help. Their right to pursue their happiness, while somebody bleeds to death at their feet. Their "unalienable Rights" not to care for another person in this world but to only care for their own self. What about the women that was bleeding to death? Did not she have a right to Life? Did these people not have a moral obligation to help their fellow citizen instead of kick them when they are down? Quite stirring isn't it, how people view their rights and responsibilities the Founding Fathers gave them.<br />n<br />nThis whole story sickens me especially today when I read it. The contrast between the ideal that was what the Founding Fathers were striving for and the reality of what people are making of it is a sad state of affairs for people of this country. [sarcasm]Happy Fourth of July[/sarcasm]. Do we just celebrate the ideal or do we try to live up to it? Sadly enough as this shows, not enough people live up to the ideal.<br />n<br />