History Assignment

Question

Below you will find a link to the Declaration of Independence. It is your group's task to read and analyze the first two paragraphs. Then, you and your group members will re-write those two paragraphs to make it fit more into modern day lingo. 

American Declaration of Independence

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.

In the space below, re-write the Declaration of Independence in your

own words:

Answer 1

American Declaration of Independence

When the simple passage of time presents circumstances that make it necessary for a people to end a political relationship and to assert their basic human and civil rights -- rights to which each individual member of the group is entitled simply by virtue of having been born -- common decency suggests that it would be proper to elaborate on the reasons for the ending of the relationship.

We maintain that it is a basic truth that is obvious on its face that any one human being is born with rights equal to every other human being, and that simply by virtue of having been born, all human beings possess certain undeniable and irrevocable rights and that these rights include: the right to exist, the right the be free, and the right to strive for contentment. Furthermore, we maintain that to preserve and enforce these rights, human beings create governments, and governments only have and maintain their privileges and powers because the people they govern consent to grant them to the government. Finally, we maintain that when a government ceases to do its duty in preserving and enforcing the rights of the people, and when the consent of the people to be governed ceases to exist, it is the right and responsibility of the people to abolish that government and to form a new one which does serve to preserve and enforce their rights.