Before we had our Constituation, we had our manifesto: The Declaration of Independence. It contains one of the cornerstones on which our country's ideology is founded: the opinion that all men are endowed with the unalienable rights of "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness".

That 5-person committee of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman were either propheptic or they enacted a self-fulfilling prophecy. Those three linchpins upon which America was built have become three of the most heated sources of debate and outrage in our country. In regard to Life, one need only consider the divide over capital punishment, abortion, or euthanasia. How earnestly we fight over freedom of speech, freedom of religion, a right to privacy and for what we consider our god-given Liberty.

But what of the pursuit of Happiness. How do you define Happiness? How do you achieve Happiness? How important is Happiness? Ask yourself the question: "What makes me happy." For me, it is the hope that one day I will be able to have a family and a place of my own. I imagine many of you might have the same hope. For the rest of you, it may be something else, equally satisfying and joyous. Whatever that may be, just hold that in your mind.

Are you pursuing that Happiness? According to the Continental Congress you have a right to do so. An unalienable right. They were pretty good at covering the Life and the Liberty, there must be a reason for that last one. They spent 17 days working on the first draft of the Declaration, and Thomas Jefferson was no slouch.

So if law and governance of that law provides us with Life and Liberty, it should committed to providing us with the pursuit of Happiness. When it comes to my initial conception of what makes me happy, that means I have the right to pursue all legals means to start a family and own a piece of land that I can call home. It also means that whatever your happiness may be, you too have a right to pursue it.

Everything follows from this idea. We cannot pursue happiness if we are too sick and cannot afford to keep ourselves well enough to work and earn a living, which is really our only means to achieve worthwhile happiness. We are denied pursuit if laws are in place which unfairly allow one group of people to attain happiness over the other. The good neighbor policy stands; one group should not be allowed to pursue happiness if it is as at the cost of another group's pursuit. This can be translated to the freedoms that the ultra-rich and upper class have in comparison to those that the poor and destitute do not.

Obama is not a socialist. He is not a marxist. He is not Hitler (Hitler's platform was built on the backs of those whom he would deny even a moment's happiness). He is a Happiness pursuer. He has taken it upon himself and his Presidency to set in motion a series of events and legislation that will lead to a country, and in all hopes, a world focused on pursuing happiness.

Those on the far right of the political spectrum fear this because they feel that if someone else prospers, they suffer. If more people are given opportunity and the same tools that they have, then the fear is that it will ultimately lead to their loss of power, their being in the minority, their inability to pursue happiness. Perhaps this is just a projection of what they would do in place of the underprivileged were they underprivileged themselves. Perhaps it is because this socio-political sect of American humanity believes only in man's self-interest and not his desire for social equity and harmony.

Perhaps those who can truly pursue happiness wish to keep it all for themselves.

Whatever the case, President Obama is the first President in my lifetime who seems to be taking the Declaration of Independence to heart. All are welcome. All have these unalienable rights. That is one thing that is as true as it was in 1776 as it is now.