Monday
Jul042011
let freedom ring
Monday, July 4, 2011 at 11:11AM When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
This is only the first two paragraphs of the Declaration, but these words describe a People; farmers, bankers, engineers, lawyers, butchers, cobblers, not too different from us, denied their basic rights. Rights of freedom, privacy, protection, justice, peace, and fair taxation, denied by an elite government far removed (physically, mentally and emotionally) from the people which it is supposed to protect. Sound familiar? It does to me. An elite government peopled by what has become a political caste, consistently removing itself and its morals, ethics and goals from the populace it has been charged with, denying all of the basic rights the People elected it to uphold to further its own power. Forgetting the oath it took, under the articles written by the People to discharge our will, and using our blood, sweat, tears and money to fill its vaults of tyranny.
This is not a call to arms to rebel and put down those words written over two hundred years ago; this is a call to responsibility to those whom we have entrusted our care and to the People, to hold them accountable, and to remove from power those with other aims.
Cheers.
