Jul 4, 2007

"NOW, TODAY, TOMORROW"

Happy 4J, darlings. Be safe.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What nerve!
Celebrating your illegal and unlawful revolt against your rightful King.
My poor ancestors lost everything and had to leave, abandoning 150 years of New World history, for what was to become Canada.
We are still waiting for restitution.
I am not bitter.
I am a bit cold in the winter though.
Happy Revolted Colonies Day girlfriend.

John Kuttenberg said...

My Dearest Rhetorically Sterculian,

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 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.

Anonymous said...

dear Wings - john k:

yeah, really book-smart and verbose, but freakin' George Bush fucked all that up, now didn't he?

we can't be so self-righteous now; he's ruined our moral standing in the world.

it'll take a generation or two to undo the damage this fascist has done.

peace,

al anon

Amy Guth said...

RS: Girlfriend...?

Wings: WOW!

Anon: Hey, I'm glad you brought up fascism; I was just wondering yesterday if baby chicks can be fascists...? What about Scott Baio? Do we think he's a fascist? I can't decide.

Unknown said...

Al,

Have no worries. If we survived the Japanese internment camps of WWII and the suspension of civil liberties during WWI, I think that things will have a way of working themselves out. This is no excuse, of course, just a reminder that these things have happened over and over again in our history, and there is little that is remarkable about the current state of affairs; no matter how fucked up they might be.

Besides, just the fact that you can post such a comment without fear of censor or retribution is the glimmer of hope that we have in our (very) imperfect system. Maybe that's something to be thankful for on this day?

Anonymous said...

Lord T'underin' Jaysus!
I was sorta, kinda joshin' yins.
If it were not for your revolution, I would not have my 'UE' designation. Makes me almost a 'Royal', the chicks dig it.

Amy, dahling, 'girlfriend' was meant in an early nineties milquetoast way. No offense was intended. I call my sisters 'girlfriend' and I am not from Tennessee. I am actually from my mother if truth be told.

Wings-john k
Any relation to Steppenwolf's John Kaye? Or perhaps Johnathan Livingston Seagull?

John Kuttenberg said...

Rhetorically Sterculian - Perspective is everything, your rightful King was our tyrant

al anon - I do agree. He is a tyrant that must be dealt with and thank God we have the ability to do that if enough spineless citizens would bother walking to the polls. If you truly read what it says you will find it is really quite concise. Unfortunately it often is wasted on those raised in a time when thirty second sound bites pass for an explanation of public policy.

Amy - Sorry for taking up so many inches, but when read with the intention of understanding, this is one of the most thorough and eloquent position papers in history. Thank you for allowing it to be posted.

Adam - As always you are equally elegant and accurate.

As Carl Schurz, a German immigrant stated and our American Abraham quoted, "Our country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right."

Once again, thank you Amy for allowing and even fostering productive discourse.