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WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Noting the importance of regular refresher courses in America’s founding principles, members of the McLennan County Criminal Defense Association joined other attorneys around the state in reading the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights on the day before the nation celebrates its liberty.

Organized by attorney David Bass, four attorneys, a court employee and a Spanish translator stood on the steps of the McLennan County Courthouse to read the venerable words of the founding fathers.

Bass said attorneys in at least 150 of the state’s 254 counties will gather Wednesday or Thursday to recite the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

Bass was joined by Cody Cleveland, Walter M. Reaves Jr., Lyle Gripp, Dan Carroll, Cyndi Martin and Lewis Gainor of the Federal Public Defender’s Office in what has become an annual event in McLennan County.

“It is the wisdom of the ages we are seeking here, and after 248 years, this is still important to know, especially in this day and age, this election year,” Bass said. “All of these things are very important, and they have been for such a long period of time.”

Bass said the words of the founding fathers remain relevant today and are essential for Americans to remember.

“We live in perilous times. Some people have sold their souls for a phrase and for a bumper sticker slogan,” Bass said. “We are not to be ruled by a monarch or a petty tyrant, but by the founding principles of these documents. If we do not agree to mark and inwardly digest these documents and those similar to them, we will live the words of the poet, who said, ‘The saddest words of tongue or pen are simply these, what might have been.’ "