Although it is a great document, the Declaration of Independence remains about as legal as The Lord of the Rings (with some extremely rare exceptions). It doesn't guarantee anything to anyone. It's little more than a flippant dismissal of the English crown painted with some fabulous wording. Well-deserved or not. It provides a glimpse at the mindset of the colonial Americans before they revolted, but really doesn't mean much to modern society and the rights of citizens.
The Constitution is really the place to look for our rights as citizens of the US (if indeed you happen to be one). This document binds our government from trampling our rights with the very power we've given them. It assures that certain things will always remain legal and acceptable no matter how unsafe or insane they may seem in any given situation.
Rights are the things we expect to have and expect everyone to give us because we give them back to everyone else as well. Of course this is just an expectation, and nothing can ever truly be guaranteed. At least we have it in writing though.
Indeed so, and you are correct in illustrating your point as you did...
I referenced The Declaration of Independence specifically because fundamentalists seek to exploit it's text as supplicate in overriding concern to our very own Constitution.
What most uniformed yet exceptionally outspoken "defenders" of Constitutional
"rights" often fail to acknowledge or even accurately represent...is the fact that our rights are established and codified by the US Constitution, and not within that declaration, which was really no more than a middle finger pointed and jabbed into the eye of the British monarchy of the day.
Within that structure of the Constitution as initially codified and established by the original 13 colonies, resides the most exceptional and freethinking codicil of all... that "We the People" may choose, under exceptional and difficult processes, "amend" that founding Constitution to enumerate and establish further rights and protections as if they were written into the very Constitution itself at it's inception.
Odd that today many do not fully appreciate that the "Bill of Rights" were in fact "amendments" to our Constitution, and not a part of it's original draft. "Originalists" have it tough, claiming sanctity of 2nd amendment "rights", which in reality, were NOT a part of the original draft of the Constitution, yet they battle daily in opposition to equally valid aspects of Constitutional amendments that trouble them, or at least retain absolutist objections as -ironically enough- "unconstitutional", which best serves to highlight their ignorance more than their appreciation for either history or grasp of what the Constitution actually articulates in and of and for itself.
"Rights" are established, enforced, outlined, and defined by those that choose what they may as applied to all.
When the US Constitution was initially ratified; black people were deemed 3/5 of a person quantified as property; women were chattel of marriage with no right to vote. Constitutional "amendments" were the instrument of change in both instances.
Just to be emphatic and clear, again...."We the People" rightly choose and define what "rights" are, and should be... and if some deity wants a say in that process, show up in a polling booth and be counted