“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.”

I have been considering how I would like to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding. I have taken a more philosophical and spiritual approach than gilded statues and pugilistic sports events.

The two founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, are really quite remarkable, and the opening statements of each bear remembering.

The Declaration of Independence states the ideal of individual freedom and the fundamental rights of all people. It makes clear that the right to freedom is not given to people by their government, but belongs to all people, regardless of what kind of government they live under. Although our government has not lived up to these ideals, the goal of these ideals is my reason to celebrate.

It was evident from the list of usurpations the colonies accused the king of committing that they did not want a single individual to have power over the people and that their purpose in seeking independence was to limit government, to make the government the servant, not the master of the people.

Indeed, we would hardly even need government if all people lived by the Golden Rule and the strong did not prey on the weak. The purpose of government is to protect the weak from the strong and unprincipled, and most of all, from their own government; to ensure a level playing field wherein everyone can live up to potential without unfair interference.

The Constitution sets forth how they proposed to do this: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

It did not establish laws but defined the structure of how the government would be set up, in which laws would be passed by the representatives of the people, not by an individual or a political party.

There are two aspects of government organized by the Constitution that I wish to point out:

The structure deliberately limited the power of the president and the executive branch by giving them authority only to execute the laws (and, incidentally, to spend money) passed by Congress. Another significant paragraph (the 10th Amendment) also explicitly states that any other power not granted by this Constitution is reserved to the states and the people. (There is nothing about the president issuing executive orders that would have the force of law.) Again, the writers of the Constitution feared the power of government abusing the people, especially the power of one person.

The other point is that the Founders explicitly rejected the model of the parliamentary government, the most democratic government of their time, with its prime minister being the head of his party and administrator of both the executive and legislative functions. In fact, George Washington discouraged political parties at all, and at this time, I believe they are one of the most destructive parts of our so-called “two-party system.” Even the House of Representatives governs itself on a parliamentary model, with the party having the most representatives choosing the chairs of each committee as well as the speaker of the House.

I have written on this subject many times, so I will not repeat why I believe we should have no party affiliations on voter rolls, no party primaries, and ranked-choice voting. Then the speaker of the House would be elected by all the representatives.

There are other improvements I could make to the Constitution, but none of them would be of any avail unless we the people choose to elect people of integrity, wisdom, and relevant experience. There have been many years in my lifetime when, for most of us, our government seemed to function very well. Yet never have we lived up to our potential.

However, like the discovery of nuclear power, the idea of good government has been discovered, and you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. That is what I celebrate.

Judith Truesdell lives in Greenfield.