Today is my wedding
anniversary. I usually post a loving tribute to my wife, Sue, and our ability
to make it through the minefield which all marriages are at some point or
another. It was 27 years ago today when Sue and I took the vows, and though it hasn't always been easy, we are still together, relying on one another more and
more with each passing year.
So, it was with great regret
that I asked her if it would be okay for me to skip doing a post about our
anniversary in order to address a more
pressing issue; our rights as citizens in our own land. Those rights include
the freedom to speak our minds; assemble peacefully without penalty; and to
enjoy the freedom from unwarranted intrusion into our personal lives. It is
with sorrow that I have to state these things are all under assault at the
present time.
I was a bit
uncomfortable with the NSA news; that they have been reading our e-mails and
listening to our phone calls; but since I have nothing really important to
hide, I was almost willing to chalk it up to “national security”; trusting that
our government “by the people and for the people” would be capable of making
the distinction between terrorists and ordinary individuals.
I was also comfortable
with the “leaks” generated by Messrs.’ Assange and Snowden; it gave me the feeling
that this kind of information should be available for the public. Just as the
government tells us that if we “have nothing to hide, then we have nothing to fear”,
I make the same claim against them.
What are they afraid
of? “Leaking” the truth? If I had “leaked” the truth to my Dad, rather than
answer his questions on the first shot, I got punished. It was a great lesson
to me, and one that reverberates this July 4th, on the heels of the
latest revelation about Obama’s 2 year old “secret” (until this week) program
dubbed the “Insider Threat Program.”
The IRS scandal, along with the NSA nonsense,
still don’t worry me as much as this latest infringement of the rights which we
all seem to take for granted, even as they are being slowly whittled away by
both political parties.
This “Insider Threat
Program” is the most disturbing to me because it goes against the very grain of
the Whistle Blower Protection program. Just the very name says it all; “Insider
Threat Program.” Think of what the term really means. It’s not a program designed
to stop national security “leaks” and keep us safe from foreign enemies; it’s a
program specifically designed for government employees to identify; and punish;
the people who work in government agencies and may see something wrong going
on.
All this brings us to
the vaunted document displayed above; the Declaration of Independence. It was
237 years ago today when the last of the signers affixed their signatures to
the document which gave birth to a nation founded upon the principles later codified
in the United States Constitution. I wonder how many of our politicians have
read; or even understand; the document. In light of all recent events, I would
venture that, even if they have read it, they think of it in terms of
antiquity; almost as if it were no longer relative. For those who share that
view I am printing the text of the Declaration below, in the hopes that you
will read it.
When you do,
substitute all of the recent scandals for the things which the Declaration
accuses King George the Third of. You may be surprised to discover that we have
as much to complain about now, as we did 237 years ago.
So, here is the text,
and after that a bit of music, which; although calling for change; does not
require anyone to kill anyone else in the endeavor. Happy 4th, and
don’t forget to make those phone calls to your Representatives and Senators in
Washington when the holiday is over. Let them know how angry you are at their
attempt to rob of your birthright.
And, whatever you do, wave that flag proudly
today – it belongs to us, the people. And that’s something we can never afford
to let them forget.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States
of America,
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.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is
now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of
Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of
repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the
establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let
Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden
his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless
suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so
suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation
of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable
to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public
Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for
opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions,
to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of
Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the
State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from
without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these
States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners;
refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the
conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing
his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the
tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent
hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies
without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and
superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a
jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws;
giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for
any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial
by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended
offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a
neighbouring Province, establishing therein an
Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as
to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same
absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most
valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring
themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of
his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our
towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign
Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already
begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on
the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of
their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has
endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian
Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all
ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned
for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered
only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act
which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British
brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their
legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded
them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by
the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would
inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been
deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore,
acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as
we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States
of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of
the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority
of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these
United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that
they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all
political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought
to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have
full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce,
and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection
of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes
and our sacred Honor.
Happy Anniversary Sue.
I love you more than ever - as if that were even possible...
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