We the People

Every year on the Fourth of July, on the last page of the New York Times' business section, someone pays to reprint a copy of the Declaration of Independence. Given the prominence of John Hancock's signature, which looms larger above the others, I always thought the ad was placed by the insurance company. Maybe the Times itself does it as a kind of public service ad.

Whoever pays for it, it is indeed a public service -- a good reminder of the principles upon which the United States was founded. One of the most basic of those principles appears in the very first lines -- "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind."  One might be forgiven for wondering if America's declining reputation around the world isn't the natural consequence of forgetting to apply that principle in our dealings with other nations.