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.
That's what we are celebrating today in America, about a year into the actual start of the revolutionary war, which was initiated when the first Continental Congress (the declaration was formed by the 2nd one) initiated a boycott of British goods (the Boston Tea Party) and a petition to King George III to repeal the Stamp Act, the Townshend Act and other nasty taxes and deprivations of the rights of the colonists in October,1774.
The response of King George was to march on Lexington and Concorde in April, 1775, causing the 2nd Continental Congress to be convened in which they signed the much lesser-known "Declaration Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Their Taking Up Arms," in July of 1775. Like many Georges, this King George had foolishly started a war on the other side of the world looking to impose his will on an entrenched society and his army, well known to be the finest in the world, was humiliated by a rag-tag bunch of rebels, who received aid from George's long-standing enemy (France) and the war ultimately ended up being the thread that led to the 100-year destruction of the British Empire.
Thank goodness we have history books or our leaders may repeat the mistakes of the past (those of them that read books at least!).
My favorite part of the Declaration of Independence is certainly the line 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" – this is something we apparently just don't do often enough these days! Our founding fathers do indeed caution us "that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes" but they go on to say that "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."
So it is not unpatriotic to question your government and your elected officials – it is, in fact, unpatriotic NOT TO!
Whether or not it is true that President Bush actually said "Stop throwing the Constitution in my face, it's just a goddamned piece of paper!" to one of his aids, the fact is that even this Supreme Court has rebelled against the Administration's loose interpretation of the laws. Even if you are in favor of the Patriot Act and the treatment of human beings in Guantanomo Bay and Abu Gharib and even if you think we are fighting a just war in Iraq and even if you think that Bush purchasing over 250M barrels of oil for the SPR (using our money), which he has refused to release a drop of while the nation suffers (Clinton released oil 3 times to great effect) is just fine and even if you are comfortable with dozens of Bill of Rights violations under this Administration (oh wait, here's 10 more) – you have to at least respect the right of others to want a change… It's in the Constitution you know!
You may not mind the fact that this Administration has overspent the national budget by $4.5Tn in 7 years, doubling our national debt and placing a future tax (without representation) on every US household of $45,000 and incurring interest payments of $225Bn a year, especially if you are wealthy and $45,000 means little to you personally. You may not mind that the dollar has been devalued by over 40% since Bush took office, wiping out $18Tn of US household assets (while the top 10% of the country increased their assets by over 50%, keeping "even" as the rest of the country fell apart). You may not mind that the value of US homes is down almost 20% from their peak in the past 2 years or that homeowner's percentage of home equity has dropped to 46.2%, the lowest measure since WWII while home debt rose to a record $10.6Tn even as the value of those homes slipped by $3Tn.
Health care costs have gone up 400% since Republicans defeated the Clinton Health Care Reform Plan in 2003, outpacing costs in the rest of the world by about 200% as America remains the only industrialized nation on the planet that does not provide universal health care. The "Misery Index" an official government measure of the happiness of the people measured with a combination of unemployment and inflation – even using the government's BS low inflation numbers and BS low unemployment figures – has jumped from 7.35 in 2000 to 9.68 in May, before oil jumped $20 and before unemployment jumped 10%.
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. That's what today is all about. It's up to you to make tomorrow what you want it to be, what our forefathers wanted it to be and what it damn well can be if we all work together!
Happy 4th of July!
