Our Founding Fathers, like the Trumbull mural, were far from perfect. The word to emphasize in the opening line of Jefferson's document, "When in the course of human events," is human. Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, who was one of its signers, suffered from palsy, but when he wrote his signature, he said to colleagues standing at his side, "My hand trembles, but my heart does not."

The "pursuit of happiness" was not about a day at the beach. Jefferson described its purpose as guaranteeing "tranquility and occupation," to enjoy the freedom to read, to study, to learn and to think for oneself. It's about Americans declaring faith in a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

"Those brave, high-minded people of earlier times gave us stars to steer by," David McCullough says of Thomas Jefferson's work, "a government of laws not of men, equal justice before the law, the importance of the individual, the ideal of equality, freedom of religion, freedom of thought and expression, and the love of learning."

They gave us the light to mark the way in a dark and dangerous world. So light a sparkler for them, and then another for the rest of us. And put a little extra mustard on that hot dog, if you will.

Happy Fourth of July.