 The why sometimes gets subsumed in the how, and that's part of the problem. We read these words, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they're endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that to secure these rights, governments are instituted amongst men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.