Join Windrose as we celebrate our nation’s 241st birthday by memorizing the opening passage of the Declaration of Independence! These words communicate the core principles of America, the land of freedom and opportunity, and there is no better way to honor our nation’s birthday than to study the founding document that established our independence from the British empire. The Founders risked their lives, fortunes, and reputations by signing their names to these words. It is essential for those of us who benefit from their patriotic sacrifice to understand and memorize their defense of liberty.
The Windrose Project is committed to building up a new generation of leaders in America who are dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. In light of that mission, we invite you to challenge yourself to memorize a portion of our founding document, and compete for a scholarship in the process! Prizes of $100 will be awarded to each of the top 10 entries, so start memorizing today!
- Task
- Memorize the first 2 paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence (included below).
- Record a video of yourself reciting the memorized part of the Declaration. Get creative! Limit of 5 minutes.
- Submission
- Email your video as an attachment to [email protected]
- You may also upload your video to Google Drive or YouTube and email a link to share access.
- Due Date: Tuesday, August 15th
- Results: Announced by Monday, August 21st.
Hints: Read the opening of the Declaration every day, and work on memorizing it one sentence at a time. This is a simple challenge, but don’t procrastinate! Set a regular time every day to read through the passage, and see how far you can get by memory. And most of all, believe in yourself… You can do it!
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The following is the passage that must be memorized, recited and recorded for submission:
In Congress, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –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, 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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
