This coming weekend marks the 234th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America.

Back then, freedom rang because individuals were willing to risk, literally, everything to be free from the yoke of heavy-handed government. Their declaration of individual rights meant their lives, their liberty, their property, and their sacred honor would be at stake.

Still, during those fateful summer days in 1776 at Philadelphia, delegates to the Second Continental Congress bravely asserted their intentions by passing, on July 2, a “resolution of independence.”

Two days later, on July 4, delegates voted in session to approve the document we know as the Declaration of Independence. The document was intended to explain, in detail, the reasons for separating from the British crown.

Then – beginning July 4th and continuing through early August – each individual dared to pick up a pen, dip it in their personal well of courage, and imprint their signature on the Declaration of Independence.

In the entire length of the human experience, America’s more than two-century existence is, still, but a short time. Yet, America’s birth stands as the singular moment of change in man’s relation to man and the primacy of individual self-government.

The Founders declaration that “all men are created equal;” that every man is “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;” that these unalienable rights include – but are not limited to – “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness;” and, the specification that whenever “governments are instituted among men” that the singular measure of legitimacy can only be “… to secure these rights is profound and clear.

John Adams understood the significance of this course of events when, on July 3, he wrote to his beloved wife, Abigail: “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. …it ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty… solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

And so it has.

We celebrate two days later than John Adam’s prediction because changing the course of world history is not to be undertaken lightly, and the Declaration itself was undergoing revision and redrafting.

One month later, the new American patriots would have to fight the British to retain the freedom declared in Philadelphia.

Then, nearly four decades after that, our Founders, their descendants, and new American citizens, would fight the British yet again in the War of 1812; the war, often cited, “that once and for all confirmed American independence.”

Today, each American citizen has the responsibility to possess the personal constitution to declare their unshakable support of freedom and individual self-government.

During these anniversary days of our nation’s birth, Americans should proclaim their support for the principles in the Declaration of Independence.

One wonders how present-day Americans would respond to the events 234 years ago. Would all, or most, step-up and affix their own signatures?

Richard Olivastro is president of Olivastro Communications. He can be contacted at RichOlivastro@gmail.com or 877.RichSpeaks.