INDEPENDENCE STILL BEING DEFINED

BY DECLARING INDEPENDENCE 227 years ago today, the Founding Fathers gave
the United States of America its form.

But it is in meeting the continuing challenges to define independence that
we give our U.S.A. its substance.

If we ever stop working to perfect the meaning of the terms in the
remarkable living and breathing document, if we ever quit fine-tuning our
understanding of it, if we ever relax our commitment to it, we surely will
cause it to gasp and wither.

On July 4, 1776, some 20 percent of the 2.5 million residents of the 13
colonies were slaves. The Declaration of Independence (drafted by Thomas
Jefferson with changes contributed by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and
others) did not change that, even though it announced "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."

Long struggle for equality It took a long time and an enormous, tragic
struggle before "all men" was defined in such a way that none of us could
claim ownership over others of us.

Many generations also passed before we defined "all men" as including both
genders, thus declaring women to have the very same unalienable rights as men.

The U.S. Supreme Court only a few days ago struggled over the meaning of
"equal" rights and handed down a ruling that affirms it as OK for
universities to consider an applicant's race when deciding who should be
enrolled.

Another definition wrestling match just finished in the nation's top court
involved equal rights with regard to sexual orientation. That ruling, in a
case that originated here in Harris County, struck down a 120-year-old
Texas law as a violation of privacy.

Today's national anniversary observance catches us in the midst of
independence crises in every level of government. We have experienced for
years the erosion of individual independence and personal freedoms because
of the failed war on drugs. Since 9/11, we've seen some of our rights fall
victim to the fight against terrorism.

Locally, our police crime lab was exposed as having long been a threat to
the freedom of people accused of crimes they did not commit. Seven long
months have crept past, and still we don't know how much tainted or
misrepresented evidence was used to win convictions. We don't know how many
people remain in prisons unjustly.

A great many of us believe the most appropriate way to seek the truth in
the police crime lab mess, and the best way to protect everyone's freedom
and independence, is with an open public investigation. We want to know
what went wrong so we can keep it from going wrong again. We want quick
action to determine who is in prison but should not be. We want the
innocent people freed.

When public officials fail Yet day after day, week after week, month after
month, our public officials -- our district attorney, our mayor, our police
chief, our judges -- continue playing us for suckers.

One of them, in the most righteous of tones, will call for one kind of
investigation but say any other type won't work. Then another of them, in
equally righteous tones, will say just the opposite. They blame each other.
They posture and they pose and they postpone taking any meaningful steps to
restore our confidence.

Today is a most appropriate time to reflect on the crime lab mess and what
we must do about the officials who are failing us. Our national birthday
party is an annual reminder that the authors of the Declaration of
Independence charged us to carefully control all our government bodies and
officials, to rein in their powers as necessary in order to protect our
freedoms.

As Thomas Jefferson wrote when ill health forced him to decline an
invitation to a Washington, D.C., 50th anniversary celebration of American
Independence Day: " ... the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles
on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred ... ." You may recall
from your history lessons that was Jefferson's last letter. He died a few
days later, on July 4, 1826.