A thought for the fourteenth

[shewhomust]

Last autumn in Chinon, passing the Mairie on the way back from the pizzeria to our hotel, durham_rambler asked: "Did it ever occur to you that France was the first country to have a mission statement?"

Bonne fête, tout le monde! And liberté, égalité, fraternité for us all!

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I think the Americans might have got in first?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Are you thinking of the Constitution? Sort of, but what we had in mind was something snappy enough to be inscribed on public buildings.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I think "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" has a bit of a ring.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

I agree with steepholm. "...a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation," sure sounds like a mission statement to me, and continuing with their principles,

"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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."