Democracy Café Launches The Declaration Project
Inspired by The Spirit of 1776, this new interactive web experience lets people browse the largest online collection of Declarations and write one of their own.
Philadelphia, PA. — July 2, 2015 — Today, the day that John Adams’ predicted in 1776 that we’d celebrate our nation’s independence, the Democracy Café launched The Declaration Project. This new interactive experience aims to feature the largest online collection of Declarations around the world, in addition to giving people the opportunity to write and share their own Declaration to inspire constructive change.
“July 2 was the day the Second Continental Congress voted to approve the resolution for independence, even though the document was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4th,” said Christopher Phillips of Harvard’s Safra Center for Ethics and founder of The Democracy Café, “While, Adam’s prediction was two days off the mark, it’s actually the perfect day to celebrate and dispel the myth that there is only one Declaration of Independence; there are actually dozens!”
When people visit the Declaration Project they’ll find interactive features that include:
- The Declaration Collection, an ever-growing collection of declarations of independence and kindred declarations crafted in the U.S. and the world over from across the ages. Many who’ve crafted the declarations published here claim to be advancing the principles of our own Founding Fathers and Mothers, even as they often disagree about what those principles amount to, and how they are best applied.
- MyDeclaration, which invites people to compose and post personal declarations. This is everyone’s chance to share their political ideals, based on their own aspirations for society and their notions of independence, liberty, equality; of citizenship, civic action and engagement; of government of, by and for the people.
- The Spirit of ’76 Cafe, which features thoughtful Socratic explorations of themes that resonate in many of the declarations on our site. Our inaugural discussion will begin online today, July 2. As with all our Democracy Café-sponsored dialogue initiatives, one goal is to provide forums for diverse participants to share their convictions and discover uncommon common ground.
As people look to celebrate our nation’s Independence, we encourage them to visit the Declaration Project site, explore the declarations, sculpt their own, and get inspired to tap into their revolutionary DNA.
About The Democracy Cafe
The Democracy Cafe is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit that strives to come to a greater understanding of the nature and future of democracy, and to influence its nature and future through such signature endeavors as Constitution Cafe, Socrates Cafe, and now the Declaration Project, that cultivate thoughtfulness, inventive and imaginative reasonableness and inclusiveness in an age of polarization. Since 2007, Christopher Phillips of Harvard’s Safra Center for Ethics and founder of the Democracy Café has been gallivanting across the fruited plain holding these offbeat mini-constitutional conventions.
For more information, press only:
Charlynn Duecy, (425) 221-4877,
