We were all born with inalienable rights. They cannot be taken away through legislation, they are beyond the government’s reach.

We all have a right to ‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.’ And that ‘pursuit’ is everything.

On this day in July 4, 1776, a group of men stood up to their oppressor. They wanted Freedom, they wanted Independence.

They laid it out in a piece of writing that would be immortalized as the Declaration of Independence.

Setting up these inalienable rights as they did, allowed every oppressed group to come forward and demand Freedom over the next several centuries. It’s not over.

Oppressors did not go away, and neither did the spirit of standing up for what you believe in.

Together, let us hold fiercely to our rights, let us not be afraid to stand, to speak, to demonstrate, to educate, to show what we know to be true and self-evident: because there is no Freedom, when there is no Choice and no Consent.

Photo of American Illustrator Tasha Tudor and her children, circa 1930s.