Every year on this date, July 4th, for the past 25 years, I have practiced my civic duty by re-reading the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. As a patriotic American, I feel it is my duty to remain vested in the founding principles of our nation. By committing myself to this practice every year it brings me the following benefits:

• Being familiar with our founding principles allows me to speak about them with knowledge and confidence; not guessing out of ignorance.
• Whenever I hear of legislation being proposed I can ask and quickly answer for myself, 'Where in the Constitution do We the People grant the government the authority to enact this legislation?'
• When someone argues about a fake right I can quickly diagnose their error and remind them of what is really in the Bill of Rights.

It is super simple to read these founding documents and the more you do the better your understanding will become and it may even lead to pursuing even deeper understanding and historical research. BTW, the photo above is the view from my desk chair as I write this. You can see that I have replica copies of the Declaration and Constitution placed prominently on my wall as a constant reminder.

I hope this inspires you to take your civic duties more seriously too. Happy Independence Day!