Perhaps the least controversial document of our founding is the Declaration of Independence. It's high mindede, soaring phrases about liberty have been the cornerstone of revolutions around the world for more than 200 years.

But the Louisiana House of Representatives - with 61 Republicans out of 105 members - can't seem to come to an agreement about teaching the Declaration.

Because, slavery.

One member gave an incoherent, laughably ignorant speech about why we shouldn't teach kids about our founding document.

Hayride:

HB 1035, a bill by Rep. Valarie Hodges that would have mandated that schoolchildren in Louisiana be taught the Declaration of Independence, sailed through the House Education Committee with a 6-2 vote. But Wednesday, when the bill reached the floor of the House, it had a different fate – amid a torrent of squabbling, Hodges returned the bill to the calendar and it’s likely finished for the session.

What we found out was something many of us knew – namely, that Rep. Barbara Norton, a Democrat from Shreveport, isn’t a fan of our founding documents – and also is a barely sentient being.

Norton and other black Democrats either deliberately, or ignorantly mischaracterize the Declaration for their own purposes.

Brietbart:

Hodges, however, tabled her bill under pressure from African-American colleagues Norton and state Rep. Pat Smith (D), who argued that school children should not be required to recite words that were written during a time in history when slavery was prevalent.

Norton said directly to Hodges:One thing I do know is, all men are not created equal. When I think back in 1776, July the 4th, African-Americans were slaves, and for you to bring a bill to request that our children will recite the Declaration, I think is a little bit unfair to us to ask those children to recite something that’s not the truth.“

Then you don’t think all men are created equal?” Hodges asked Norton.“For you to ask our children to repeat the Declaration stating that all mens [sic] are free – I think that’s unfair,” Norton continued, adding:

In 1776, Dr. King was not even born. African-Americans were in slavery, so since they were in slavery, the Declaration of Independence say we are ‘all created equal,’ we were not created equal because in 1776, July the 4th, I nor you nor any of us were born, nor was Dr. King born, so we were in slavery, and to have our children repeat again and again documents that were not even validated, I don’t think that that’s fair.

Hodges then proceeded to read Norton what King said about the Declaration of Independence:

This is what Martin Luther King said: “When the architects of our great Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note which every American was to fall heir…” He said this would guarantee freedom for the rest of our posterity.

Quoting African-American orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass on the Declaration, Hodges continued, “The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions and in all places…”

Sounds like King and Douglas held the Declaration in high regard to me - a document worth taking to heart. And this is a reason to prevent school kids from reciting part of it every day?

There are those who wish to send our entire founding into the rabbit hole, leaving only the apparent hypocrisy best summed up by Samuel Johnson, the great English man of letters: "Why do we hear the loudest yelps for freedom from the drivers of Negro slaves"?

Johnson spoke as an pro-government, pro-crackdown Englishman. But what Norton wants to erase is exactly the sort thing that should be examined and discussed; where we  began as a people and the journey from a country that could allow slavery to a society grappling with equality. If we deep six the founding, the debate occurs on the terms set by Norton and her friends - America is inherently evil, that we can't be redeemed because of the original sin of slavery, and that nothing or nobody at the founding deserves rememberance or recognition.

That kind of historical whitewashing is the favorite tactic of totalitarian societies and has no place in America.