To the Editor:
Last week, I wrote a letter to the editor [“A complete misinterpretation of our founding fathers’ text”]  as a direct response to the vice president invoking the Declaration of Independence and attempting to claim that it was the “American Promise.” Added to the end of the letter was a clarifying note by the editor.

These clarifications, however, were not in an appropriate context, nor do they contradict the statements made. The note also appeared to advocate for the harshest of tools available to redirect a wayward government.

Yes, governments “derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.” And yes, “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.” However, rendering a government “destructive” beyond repair and deciding to disregard it should not be taken lightly.

Thomas Jefferson rightly discusses this in the very next line after the editor’s quote. “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.” We should be prudent before shrugging off life in the name of liberty.

The editor also selectively quoted the declaration regarding “safety and happiness.” The full sentence by Mr. Jefferson reads “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.” Mr. Jefferson and the other founding fathers declared their principles and laid the foundation for the United States on “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” I still side with that belief and I trust that many others do too.

Hypothetically, if our government required rewriting, the new people would have the onerous obligation to state their principles and develop consent. Vice President Harris began this effort when she decided that the principles which laid the foundation for our government (acknowledgement of a Creator and the right to Life) should be disregarded and were not worthy of inclusion today.

Previous attempts to strike principles which are core to our nation’s identity have failed for good reason. But, if we neglect to remember our original texts and instead allow alteration by activist politicians, we might well lose the very Independence our founding father’s words brought about.

Let’s hope and pray that today’s indulgences go down in history as “light and transient” issues rather than the trigger for the decline and extinction of America.

Christopher Longo

Guilderland

Editor’s note: The note on last week’s letter was just to let readers know that the Declaration of Independence actually states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident ….” as opposed to what was stated in the letter: “These truths are self-evident.”

We also added links to the text of the Declaration of Independence and the text of Vice President Kamala Harris’s speech.