We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...

How many times have we heard these words? 

Back in 2007, the Washington Post ran an article by Gene Weingarten called “Pearls Before Breakfast”. In it, he chronicles an experiment by the newspaper, in which world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell put on a baseball cap and a t-shirt, and entered the L’Enfant Plaza metro station in Washington DC. Once there, he removed his Stradivarius violin from its case, and began to play. This is the music you’re hearing right now. This an artist who has sold out opera houses and played for heads of state, playing a $4 million dollar violin. Of the approximately 1,000 people who walked past, only seven stopped to listen.  

And so it is, sometimes, with our national identity as Americans. We are busy, we are desensitized, that it is an act of the will to stop, screen out the noise, and appreciate for a moment just how fundamentally unique and beautiful our country is. And the Declaration of Independence, the founding document of our country, has its own special music. 

In an effort to listen, I sat down with Brenda Hafera, Assistant Director of the Simon Center for American Studies, here at the Heritage Foundation. 

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Follow Brenda Hafera at Heritage.org:https://www.heritage.org/staff/brenda-hafera

Washington Post Video of the Joshua Bell Experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw

Full Text of the Declaration of Independence: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

Have thoughts? Let us know at heritageexplains@heritage.org