Happiness Now! Newsletter - July 3, 2007
brought to you by www.happinessnow.info,
a Happy Karma Enterprises web site. 
I like what the United States Declaration of
Independence has to say about happiness:
"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".
Citizens of the United States do indeed have
"Life,
Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness". The country may not be perfect, nothing human made ever is, but the
U.S.A has a lot going for it.
In spite of what is mostly in the news (bad news is usually
shown
because it is less common than good news), almost all citizens of the
U.S.A are really quite safe from acts of violence, are able to travel
freely and lead the lifestyle they want, and can pursue their
individual paths to happiness.
The U.S.A. is often the target of hatred by extremist groups.
Some groups dislike the freedom that exists in the U.S.A,
seeing
it as too liberal and immoral (by their standards) in their eyes. These groups
generally want some type of authoritarian religious theocracy as a
government, and see the U.S.A as their enemy. Other groups
cling
to past or present grievances related to economic or political issues.
The U.S.A., like every other country,. has made and still
makes
some mistakes. Still the general motivation of U.S. citizens
is
to help, not harm others.
The U.S.A. allows people to live without too much restriction.
Some take advantage of this and do things the
majority of
U.S. citizens reject. I am convinced that almost all people
in
the U.S.A. have no desire to harm others. The war in Iraq is
disliked by most in the U.S.A, even by those who believe it was
necessary, and the effort to end it is strong. There are
racial
issues in the U.S.A; but these are getting solved over time.
People in the U.S.A. do want peace and happinesss.
I hope that in the future their is more dialogue for solving
disagreements with the U.S.A and less confrontation, name calling , and
fighting. That is a better path to a happier life for all
involved.
Here is a great summary of the events which
triggered the founding of the United Sates of America,
courtesy of J's
Magic Graphics :
"Independence
Day is the birthday of the United States of America.
It is celebrated
on July 4th each year in the United States because it is the
anniversary of the day on which the Declaration of Independence was
adopted by the Continental Congress.
By the
middle of the 1700s, the 13
colonies that made up part of England's empire in the New World were
finding it difficult to be ruled by a king 3,000 miles across the
Atlantic Ocean and they were tired of the taxes imposed upon them. But
independence was a gradual and painful process. The colonists could not
forget that they were British citizens and that they owed allegiance to
King George III.
A "tea
party" and a Massacre" were
two events that hurried destiny along. In 1767, a tea company
in
India, owned by England, was losing money. To save the company, England
levied a tax on tea sold in the colonies in 1773. Partly as a joke,
Samuel Adams and other Bostonians dressed up as Indians and dumped a
cargo of the India Company Tea into the Massachusetts Bay. King George
III did not think it was funny, nor did he lift the tax on tea. In the
Boston harbor, British soldiers were jeered and stoned by colonists who
thought the soldiers had been sent to watch them. The soldiers fired
into the crowd and killed a few citizens. The colonists exaggerated the
number killed and called it a massacre.
Virginia
took the first step
toward independence by voting to set up a committee to represent the
colonies. This First Continental Congress met in September of 1774 and
drew up a list of grievances against the crown, which became the first
draft of a document that would formally separate the colonies from
England. George Washington took command of the Continental Army and
began fighting the British in Massachusetts. For the next eight years,
colonists fought fervently in the Revolutionary War.
In the
meantime, a war of words
was being waged in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On July 2, 1776, the
Second Continental Congress presented and debated a second draft of the
list of grievances, and John Hancock, the president of the Second
Continental Congress, was the first to sign. The document, called the
Declaration of Independence, was deemed to be treasonous against the
crown and the fifty-six men who signed it were in danger of being
executed.
Independence
Day is celebrated on
July 4 because that is the day when the Continental Congress adopted
the final draft of the Declaration of Independence. From July 8, 1776,
until the next month, the document was read publicly and people
celebrated whenever they heard it. The next year, in Philadelphia,
bells rang and ships fired guns, candles and firecrackers were lighted.
But the War of Independence dragged on until 1783, and in that year,
Independence Day was made an official holiday. Ultimately, in 1941,
Congress declared the 4th of July as a federal holiday and it has been
celebrated as such ever since... "
Take a look at the actual Declaration of Independence here, and then read this interesting rendition
of part of the declaration, courtesy of the Simple English Wikipedia, and see another way to say it in simple words:
Sometimes the people of a country do not want to
live in that
country any more. Sometimes these people want to make their land into a
new country, that is not a part of the old country they lived in
before. When people want to do this, they have to say why they want to
do it. In this paper, I will say why the people of America want to make
a new country. I will say why they do not want to be part of Great
Britain any more.
All people are equal. God
wants every person to have rights
(life,
freedom, and happiness). Sometimes bad people
try to take away the rights (life, freedom, and happiness) of other
people. People make a government so that their rights
(life, freedom, and happiness) will be safe. The job
of the government is to protect the rights of the people. A government
is good when it does this. Also, the government must do what the people
say, because the people made the government. When the government does what the people
say, it is called a democracy.
Sometimes a government is bad.
Sometimes the government does not protect the rights of the people.
When this happens, the people
have to stop the government. Then they have to make a new government, a good government,
that will protect their rights.
It is smart to do this with much caution. People should not
stop a
very old government for a silly reason. They should only do this when
the government does something very bad. They should only stop the
government when it tries to take away the rights of the people many
times.
The government of Great Britain did something very bad. The
king
(the leader of the government of Great Britain) tried to take away the
rights of the American people many times. Because of this, the people
of the United States of America want to make a new country. They do not
want to be a part of Great Britain anymore.
Time for a few funnies!
- A medieval Jewish
astrologer prophesied to a king that his favorite mistress would soon
die. Sure enough, the woman died a short time later.
The king was outraged at the astrologer, certain that his prophecy
had brought about the woman's death. He summoned the
astrologer
and commanded
him: "Prophecy, tell me when you will die!"
The astrologer realized that the king was planning to kill him
immediately, no matter what answer he gave. "I do not know when I will
die," he answered finally. "I only know that whenever I die, the king
will die three days later."
- When my sister teased her
four-year-old daughter by suggesting she liked a certain boy in her
kindergarten class, the little girl was quite indignant. "No mommy, I
don't," she replied, "because he's only interested in one thing."
Shocked, my sister cautiously asked what that might be.
"Power Rangers, of course," said the toddler.
- I had gathered my first-grade class around me to teach them to tell
time using a conventional-style analog clock. We'll be
learning
about the hour hand and the minute hand, I explained. One of
my
students interrupted and said, "I don't need to learn on that kind of
clock. My dad bought me this digital watch, and right now
it's 10
minutes to 38." - Susan K. Toth in Reader's Digest
- Reverend Billy Graham tells of a time early in his ministry when
he arrived in a small town to preach a sermon. Wanting to mail a
letter, he asked a young boy where the post office was. When the boy
had told him, Dr. Graham thanked him and said, "If you'll come to the
Baptist Church this evening, you can hear me telling everyone how to
get to heaven." "I don't think I'll be there," the boy
said. "You don't even know where your way to the post office."
-
A Sunday
school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her 5 and 6
year-olds. After explaining the commandment "Honor thy Father and thy
mother," she asked, "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to
treat our brothers and sisters?
Without missing a beat one little boy answered, "Thou shall not kill."
- There's a little fellow named Junior who hangs out at Tim
Alley's Grocery Store. The owner Tim doesn't know what Junior's
problem is, but the boys like to tease him. They say he is two
bricks shy of a load, or two pickles shy of a barrel. To prove it,
sometimes they offer Junior his choice between a nickel and a dime. He
always takes the nickel, they say, because it's bigger. One day after
Junior grabbed the nickel, Tim got him off to one side and said,
"Junior, those boys are making fun of you. They think you don't know
the dime is worth more than the nickel. Are you grabbing the nickel
because it's bigger, or what?" Junior said, "Well, if I took the dime,
they'd quit doing it!"
Enough! Thats all I
can take! 
Here are some of the other articles you can find on
the Happiness Now
web site:
... and lots more!
Be Happy!
