We Hold These Truths To Be Self Evident…
A Happy 4th of July to America. I am not normally given to political sentiment, but today is a time more than usual in which I’d feel like an absolute SWINE if I didn’t stand up and observe: There is Something Greatly Amiss In This Country.
I do not enjoy politics and generally don’t speak of political issues. This is my one annual moral observation of the governmental scene. If you usually love what I write, are rightward-leaning and prefer not to delve further than those topics, then please, I urge you to click through to your next destination as YOU MAY BE OFFENDED at what I write below. If you’d like a piece of my mind that I don’t often share, then by all means, pray do keep reading.
When I read through the Declaration of Independance as I do every year on this day (don’t know it? stay tuned), come to the list of crimes of British King George against the people, contrast the current President George II’s behavior with that of the King George III…and can see precious little contrast, I have to speak up and say:
"AMERICA IS A GREAT COUNTRY. BUT WE ARE BEING SOLD OUT, SCREWED AND LIED TO. AND NOT BY ANY FOREIGN POWER, BUT FROM WITHIN."
A cursory comparison of George III’s list of crimes with the track record of the current administration will provide entertaining reading.
Example: Many people feel George II stole the election. "Spoiled" ballots and hanging chads, my Aunt Fanny. Those voters lost their legal right to fair representation. And they were almost uniformly people of color. Similar to George III in his injustice as listed in the original Declaration of Independance:
"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."
And topically, in a week that has seen friends die in arms overseas: "He has affected to render the Military
independent of and superior to the Civil Power." If this isn’t the case
in your sector of the States, fear not, we’re getting there fast. Ditto: "He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies…" Nevermind sending them out into the world to wreak havoc in other countries who did not ask for our help (for which read, interference).
We are still in the Middle East with no plan for withdrawal. This situation is wasteful, regrettable and not constructive to the Greater Good of anyone, Iraqi, Afghani or American. (yes, Afghani - remember them? The other country we recently went in and ‘helped’?)
In my mind I wonder what if any good can come out of the Middle Eastern wars the American government has begun. In a spiritual sense, I can see that this
situation is catalyzing great change in many who are awakening, but the
great toll in terms of loss of life and suffering saddens me. (I wonder
if humans will ever truly be able to transcend our brutish natures…)
These decisions do not represent me, my vote nor my preferences. I disagree with what my government is doing and register complaint at every possible opportunity. I write my congresspeople and senators regularly. I call their offices. I call the White House on particularly irksome matters, and log-in with my preferences. I receive polite, mass-marketed thank-you emails and know my voice has not been truly heard. And so far, in forty odd years of pacifist activism by hundreds of thousands if not millions of people of good conscience, I don’t see that it’s actually doing much good….at least not with those in office.
Activism ignites those whose hearts are ready for a change. It is not my observation that people in public office are of that persuasion or if so, only rarely. And those who do make positive changes tend to get assassinated fairly often - it’s a high risk job, being a public official with a heart and guiding conscience that acts for the absolute best for all concerned.
For me on this day of Independance, it is an act of great political activism to be in the world with an open heart, with love for all and extra love towards even the tyrants that rule our lands. Because in the words of my mother, my spiritual mentor, d, the Dalai Lama, Wayne Dyer and most recently, Dan Millman in his Peaceful Warrior book and movie, "those that are the hardest to love are the ones who need love the most"
Now a moment of silence please, and then read aloud, what so many have come to take for granted, on this day of celebration of Freedom. And reflect what Freedom truly means, REALLY truly means, and the fact we do not have complete Freedom anymore, in the United States of America. And if you’re really, really, really into making This Day count (and not repeating history), think hard about what you’re going to do about it. Then, with profound love in your heart, do it.
A Happy, Healthy and FREE 4th of July to you
Blessings of Awareness, and of That Which Is Aware… Maryam
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…
Click continue to read the long list of terrible crimes of the British King George. And when you read them, reflect that these crimes are still being perpetrated today ON American soil, BY those in charge of our political freedoms…
(I would like to personally apologise to any
Native Americans who may chance upon the below reprinting of the
Declaration of Independance. It contains in its original form an
egregious slur against Native peoples, an opinion I do not share. But I
present it here in its original entirety, for alteration of history and
documents is not something I endorse. It is encouraging to note how
much we have grown since 1776.)
He has refuted 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 harass 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 benefit 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.
- John Hancock
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin,
John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson,
George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
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