University of Austin (UATX) reposted
Dear UATX community,
When the English writer G.K. Chesterton applied for a visa to visit America, he was asked -- as many visitors and immigrants still are -- whether he was an anarchist bent on subverting the country. The question startled him at first, before he saw its logic: a nation founded on a moral claim has reason to ask whether you share it, while a nation founded on blood or soil would never think to ask such a thing.
As he put it: "America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence."
So much of the Declaration defends our natural rights. But a list of rights cannot defend itself, and the founders were betting on something higher in us: that free people would guard their freedoms out of a sense of duty. That is why Madison said a republic asks more of its citizens than any other government. A king rules his subjects whether they care or not, while a free people governs itself and accepts the responsibility to maintain self-government. The Declaration calls each generation to rise to the occasion, to become the kind of citizens worthy of the freedom we’ve inherited.
When the Declaration was signed, nothing had yet been won; the hard years were still ahead. What we celebrate is the moment a people set out on a long and demanding road. Independence Day honors a triumph of human freedom and, at the same time, invites us to carry it further.
That invitation is why this university exists. Here we learn to think clearly, work hard, and cultivate the virtues that sustain a republic. This is how one generation hands the flame of liberty to the next, and how each of us grows into our fullest potential.
Happy Independence Day!
With gratitude,
Carlos Carvalho
President, University of Austin (UATX)
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