Its the 4th of July so in respect to those who put it all on the line to create a new nation some 235 years ago - I make my own Declaration.  I declare myself committed to working with anyone - Republican, Democrat, Independent or Vegan, straight or gay,  black, white, hispanic or in between, committed to answering Americas challenges and putting us on the course to greatness once again.  I commit myself to eschewing fear mongering or labels which attempt to identify the “other side” as unpatriotic or worse so that we can get on with the hard tasks of putting our country back on a sustainable path. Some butter their bread dividing America or launching irresponsible invectives against opponents. I declare a new commitment  - forging ahead now with any and all who want to deal responsibly with our financial woes and check our unsustainable and poorly thought out military commitments so that America can once again be a nation powered by the principles enshrined in our Declaration and so brilliantly enabled in our Constitution.

James Madison would boldly declare 20 years after the Declaration of Independence that the U.S. Constitution was “nothing but a dead letter until life and validity was breathed into it, by the will of the people.” He recognized then that our uniqueness was embedded in a core conviction that the American people could be trusted to self governance, a then Revolutionary concept.  Today some seek answers in Washington, but my sense is that Madison had it right when he looked to the states and the people for their concurrence to the new Constitution.  Thus plans for dealing with the national debt, reforming entitlements, improving healthcare or disengaging from Iraq and Afghanistan might originate from the policy shapers in DC, but it’s a “dead letter” until a concordance is established with the American people. Fear mongering by “placeholders” in  Washington who will fight any attempt at reform with wretched scare tactics to ensure their brief political survival is as abhorrent as those who ride radio fame squelching any attempt to work together to solve our problems as unprincipled appeasers.  The founders who bore the brunt of building a new nation had little use for loud mouthed demagogues who cast stones from the safety of the sidelines, recognizing then, as New Jersey Governor Chris Christies does today, that “principled compromise” is critical when drafting a Declaration of Independence, when forging a Constitution, or when solving our current debt crisis.

Madison joined with other Americans who decades earlier risked it all on the front lines in the drafting and signing of our Declaration, by bravely venturing into what TR would later describe as “the arena” to build a new nation.  We therefore need a new commitment by all today who seek to join our founders “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence”  to “mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor” in forging a renewed America. America can successfully deal with our debt crisis and unshackled our military from unwise or dated overseas entanglements but it will take a mature dialogue and principled dedication to real reform unfettered from fear or partisan pandering.

My declaration is to begin this discussion and follow it’s course.  Will you join?