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Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown 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.
There are few documents that have more clearly stated the case for change than the United States Declaration of Independence. There, also, are few better examples of the patient, persistent and collaborative process required to align an executive team around not only a document, but more importantly the full knowledge of the implications of their commitment. It was not without conflict and politics and compromise, and it took time to reach consensus. In the end, and with history as our proof, the painstaking process of building this revolutionary case for change was a key reason for the clear vision and commitment of a new nation.
Happy Independence Day!
Erik Van Slyke 