Happy 4th of July!

 Posted by at 12:41 pm  Holiday, Politics
Jul 042016
 

4th of July 2013

Like many holidays, Independence Day has become highly commercialized, so often Independence Day Sale often comes to mind before the patriots who risked everything to stand for the ideals of representative government.  Let us take a moment to consider the document they signed on July 4, 1776.

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 Brittish 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.

The men who wrote and signed this document were authentic patriots.  As such they were the polar opposite of the Republicans who would have us believe that racist nationalism is the same as patriotism.  It is not.  They would also have you believe that the founding fathers fought against taxation.  They did not.  They opposed taxes levied on them when they had no representation to determine what and how much those taxes might be.  To propose violence against a government because they do not like the policies if their elected representatives is not patriotism.  It is InsaniTEA and it is criminal sedition.

Here’s a special message from the Reich on the left, who is right.  It’s from an earlier year.

The video is last year’s fireworks show in downtown Portland, where I live.

Please take care to be safe.

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  14 Responses to “Happy 4th of July!”

  1. I quoted Alan Grayson on the Open Thread, but it bears repeating here – especially since the wource document is right here for comparison.

    The Declaration of Independence is not a Poly Sci paper, or a speech. It’s a list of grievances. Specifically, a list of serious gripes regarding the policy decisions by the Executive Branch of that time, a/k/a King George III.

    Some of the complaints are strangely familiar. For instance, he refused to appoint judges. Note to Senate Republicans – King George III refused to appoint judges.

    But the most telling complaint is the first one, i.e., “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. . . .”

    Does that sound familiar?

    An impermeable determination to get nothing useful done. That’s what gave us the American Revolution.

     

    • Green stars for this JD!

    • After eight years of obstruction by Republicans in Congress, sadly America seems to have come full circle. But now there's no king to blame, no mother land to tear itself away from, but instead on the verge of electing a new "king". If that would come to pass, America may see another, possibly bloody, revolution and another civil war. There's only one remedy and you know what to do.

  2. Happy 4th, TC! Hope it is more quiet than it is here at night! I love in a rural area and it sounded like I was in the middle of a war last night! I guess that EVERYONE brought their fireworks out to the country to set them off! 

    The Declaration of Independence is the document that the right beats the left over the head with all the time, but I doubt that most have never read it, or ever intend to! Too bad they don't understand the concept of democracy or what this document did for us back then!!!

    Thanks for the lesson, TC!

  3. Mr. Reich: "True patriots seek to confirm and strengthen the 'We' in 'We the people of the United States". Great words!

    Thanks, Tom, your video of fireworks was great!

  4. My country to support when it is right and to work to change when it is wrong.

  5. Thanks, TC, I hope you had a happy 4th.   We had lovely fireworks here in our subdivision last night, thanks to two very generous neighbors, only had to walk out to our driveway to watch.  We have a community pond which we have stocked with fish and all here feed them, the fireworks were held near the pond.  I enjoyed them very much.  Severe weather was predicted for here tonight, so it was held last night.  The predictions came true, a severe storm uprooted trees, turned over cars, and moved mobile homes from their foundations about thirty miles from us.  We had  only rain, thunder, and lightening, so were very lucky.

    When you read through our Declaration of Independence it sounds like the King was a Republican.

    Reich:  Quote:  "true patriots work to improve our government, not destroy it."  This says it all for me. Reich is of course, always right.

     

  6. Robert Reich is spot on, like usual!

     

    Happy 4th

     

    Everyone!!!!!

  7. It's already the morning of the 5th here, so I'm very late in saying:

    Happy 4th of July everyone!

  8. Thanks all!!  Hugs!!

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