248 years ago today the American experiment began, and we shall not let it end now.
Last edited Thu Jul 4, 2024, 08:01 PM - Edit history (1)
Before heading out to watch the evening’s fireworks, a ritual we partake in to honor the recommendation of John Adams that this day “ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this continent to the other from this Time forward forever more,” it is worthwhile for each of us to to take a moment and reread our Declaration of Independence.
It forcefully enumerates the basic rights every human being is entitled to have protected and advanced by a government that derives its power from the just consent of the governed, and not from the dictatorial whims of a self appointed king. The principles set forth therein have equal if not greater relevance for our lives today on the 248th anniversary of the signing of this foundational document that began the great experiment of American democratic self-governance.
Importantly, when one reads the long list enumerated therein of the “repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States,” which an unconstrained King George inflicted upon the American colonists, one cannot help but see the disturbing parallels between the foul nature of those wanton abuses of fundamental human rights, and those which our present would be King Donald and his lesser ministerial minions perpetrated against We The People when he last occupied the White House against the will of the majority of us.
To wit:
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
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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.
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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 . . .
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
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He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
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He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
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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.
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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
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people . . .
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us . . .
Consequently, we see that the demonstrable evils of an unconstrained king and tyrant, which motivated the framers to take their momentous step of forcefully repudiating him and committing themselves completely to the sacred cause of eliminating his control over their lives, are not a new scourge in our American experience. They have been with us from our birth as a nation.
Sadly we are once more, 248 years later, confronting them anew, and we can be assured that should the would be King Donald and his traitorous sycophants, return to power this coming November he would, as he has expressly promised, multiply those evils a thousandfold and attempt to choke our democracy in an iron death grip of untrammeled tyranny.
This is why we, like the authors of the Declaration did, must also “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” to defeat the reimposition of the yoke of monstrous tyranny Donald Trump and his band of latter day neo-Confederate fascists seek to impose on us.
These are indeed frightening times, and ones where any thinking person rightly trembles at the prospect of the potential destruction of our democracy at the hands of such gutter desecrators. The framers understood such fear of the consequences of losing the struggle they irrevocably committed to with the signing of the Declaration. So too did Lincoln leading our nation through the horrors of the Civil War, just as FDR did during the depths of the Great Depression and World War 2 when he fought fascism both here and abroad, just as union leaders did when confronting the malefactors of great wealth who murdered strikers with impunity, just as Doctor King did when confronting the monstrous, murderous scourge of southern apartheid during the civil rights struggle. Most importantly though, so too did the multitudes of courageous ordinary people, who,with unrelenting and unceasing resolve, took up the aforementioned struggles as their own just cause, for which they sacrificed blood, sweat and tears, as well as in many cases their own lives. In each instance they did not allow their fear to stop them from giving their full measure of devotion to defeating the evils they faced.
As FDR memorably said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. He knew such fear is a potent weapon used by despots who have hated and attempted to extinguish the ideals for which our country is supposed to embody throughout its history, in order to paralyze the commanding majority of decent people who oppose such tyranny into inaction.
So in this perilous and uncertain time we cannot succumb to the fear sowed by the orange abomination who aspires to be dictator along with his band of criminal sycophants. Fear is their only weapon which they wield to create the unrealistic belief that their perverse brand of American totalitarianism is inevitable.
We must remember NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. The future is, as of now, unwritten, but it IS a firm reality that WE ARE THE ONES, who, like our forebears, possess the ultimate power to, in short order, create a future where these enemies of America are soundly repudiated and relegated to the trash heap of history where they belong, and we can begin anew the vital work of extending the blessings and promise of our democracy to each and every person. So we must keep the faith and work like hell to make that future THE REALITY come November, with the same unceasing and relentless commitment that the framers and the people who followed them possessed 248 years ago, and successive generations have embraced, to secure the blessings and promise of the democracy we rightfully enjoy and celebrate today.
In an 1826 letter – the last he ever wrote -- Thomas Jefferson spoke of the importance of Independence Day. “For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.” And so with such devotion we can and we will prevail! ✊🏼🤜🏼🤛🏼✊🏼🇺🇸🇺🇸
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