Preamble.
To secure and expand our liberties, therefore, we accept these
responsibilities as individual members of a free society:
-
To be fully responsible for our own actions and for the consequences
of those actions. Freedom to choose carries with it the responsibility
for our choices.
-
To respect the rights and beliefs of others. In a free society,
diversity flourishes. Courtesy and consideration toward others are
measures of a civilized society.
-
To give sympathy, understanding and help to others. As we hope others
will help us when we are in need, we should help others when they are in
need.
-
To do our best to meet our own and our families' needs. There is no
personal freedom without economic freedom. By helping ourselves and
those closest to us to become productive members of society, we
contribute to the strength of the nation.
-
To respect and obey the laws. Laws are mutually accepted rules by
which, together, we maintain a free society. Liberty itself is built on
a foundation of law. That foundation provides an orderly process for
changing laws. It also depends on our obeying laws once they have been
freely adopted.
-
To respect the property of others, both private and public. No one
has a right to what is not his or hers. The right to enjoy what is ours
depends on our respecting the right of others to enjoy what is
theirs.
-
To share with others our appreciation of the benefits and obligations
of freedom. Freedom shared is freedom strengthened.
-
To participate constructively in the nation's political life.
Democracy depends on an active citizenry. It depends equally on an
informed citizenry.
-
To help freedom survive by assuming personal responsibility for its
defense. Our nation cannot survive unless we defend it. Its security
rests on the individual determination of each of us to help preserve it.
-
To respect the rights and to meet the responsibilities on which our
liberty rests and our democracy depends. This is the essence of freedom.
Maintaining it requires our common effort, all together and each
individually.