![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kuangningThe Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
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 [George III] 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.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/4428107.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/22/politics/22JOBL.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/04/politics/04LEAV.html
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.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/12/international/12COUR.html
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
Not quite, but getting there...
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/04/politics/04BONU.html
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.
or, in this case, the executive branch itself independent of and superior to the judiciary...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A50845-2002Aug6¬Found=true
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/15/politics/15PATR.html
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:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,262065,00.html
http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=aiobheil&itemid=124257
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:
In their own words:
"On November 25, 2002, President Bush signed the "Homeland Security Act of 2002" into law. The Act restructures and strengthens the executive branch of the Federal Government..."
"The creation of the Department of Homeland Security is the most significant transformation of the U.S. government in over a half-century."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/deptofhomeland/
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 and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
In this case, he is transporting our own armies beyond our borders to complete such works of death, desolation, and tyranny. As for perfidy:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12377231&method=full&siteid=50143
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020927-500715.htm
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.
Or, in this case, to require fellow citizens to bear witness against each other, or to suffer at the hands of fellow citizens who bore witness against them... Operation TIPS. 'nuff said.
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 the 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.
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 [George III] 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.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/4428107.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/22/politics/22JOBL.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/04/politics/04LEAV.html
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.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/12/international/12COUR.html
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
Not quite, but getting there...
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/04/politics/04BONU.html
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.
or, in this case, the executive branch itself independent of and superior to the judiciary...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A50845-2002Aug6¬Found=true
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/15/politics/15PATR.html
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:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,262065,00.html
http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=aiobheil&itemid=124257
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:
In their own words:
"On November 25, 2002, President Bush signed the "Homeland Security Act of 2002" into law. The Act restructures and strengthens the executive branch of the Federal Government..."
"The creation of the Department of Homeland Security is the most significant transformation of the U.S. government in over a half-century."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/deptofhomeland/
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 and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
In this case, he is transporting our own armies beyond our borders to complete such works of death, desolation, and tyranny. As for perfidy:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12377231&method=full&siteid=50143
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020927-500715.htm
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.
Or, in this case, to require fellow citizens to bear witness against each other, or to suffer at the hands of fellow citizens who bore witness against them... Operation TIPS. 'nuff said.
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 the 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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 12:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 01:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 01:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 02:38 am (UTC)My guess is the second one.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 03:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 03:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 03:57 am (UTC)and it's not like old king george "let" america get away with it. we gained our nation status by TERRORIST actions upon those poor british soldiers and businessmen. god fucking bless.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 04:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 04:08 am (UTC)For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
The US has how many bases in other countries again?
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
Or by ensuring that an international criminal court which could hold them responsible does not come to pass...
no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 04:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 04:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 04:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 04:24 am (UTC)I wonder what that would do for the citizenship/nationality of our illustrious president. :coughoops:
Re:
Date: 2003-01-04 04:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 04:49 am (UTC)and the term would most likely be "el presidente de tejas" after just a few weeks. ;)
la.
la la la.
it is an early morning.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 06:53 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-01-04 07:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 11:42 am (UTC)I've been in San Francisco, Seattle, and Dallas - every time, I've seen an immense military presence, in the form of regular fighter-jet flyovers, soldiers, and on one memorable occasion, an old bunker (overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge). I've had guns flaunted at me at the Canadian border. I think Americans are so thoroughly drenched in their military presence that it no longer seems unusual, or strange, or WRONG to them. It has to influence every decision they make in some way or another - rebellion is doubplusunthink because of the sheer amount of military presence. People *know* they'd get smackdowned; witness Waco, Texas, or a half-dozen other places. Your police forces are growing in size exponentially to deal with real and imagined threats from every quarter, your courts are putting into force more and more absurd and unobeyable laws, and the people are growing correspondingly more restless and contemptuous of those laws and their enforcers.
I have never knowingly seen a military plane fly over Vancouver, or a battleship in our harbours. There is a military base at Esquimalt, but that's rather distant, and they keep to themselves. There was an American submarine in the Fraser River opened up and giving tours some years ago. We don't maintain bases all over the world, hell, we don't maintain bases in our major cities! Our military is anemic and frankly, I'm proud that we can get away with that! If we had the same militarization for our population as the states did - a military presence the tenth of yours - it would ruin us.
Why do Americans have bases scattered all over their country, if not to suppress and control their own population? I can't fathom the military presence in your country; it could be a military dictatorship, viewed from the outside, were it not for the freedom that you obviously once enjoyed and still seem to.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 01:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 01:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 01:27 pm (UTC)I agree with you, however, about Americans being used to the military presence.
"There are instruments so dangerous to the rights of the nation and which place them so totally at the mercy of their governors that those governors, whether legislative or executive, should be restrained from keeping such instruments on foot but in well-defined cases. Such an instrument is a standing army." --Thomas Jefferson to David Humphreys, 1789. ME 7:323
no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 02:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 02:16 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-01-04 02:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 02:35 pm (UTC)o/` ranting and raving and carrying on o/`
Date: 2003-01-04 03:17 pm (UTC)I'm not entirely convinced, however, that without the Americans, we'd need to be similarly armed or be totally defenceless. Europe isn't, Japan isn't. The USA claims to be a protectorate, seems to want to declare some kind of Pax Americana across the entire globe. I don't think that's necessary nor desirable. War isn't going to go away once that happens, we can't abolish all armies everywhere and pretend that humans are somehow going to become noble, benevolent creatures, that Saddam Hussein is going to go and hug Bush and make up. We have to figure out a way to live that doesn't involve overwhelming, massive, wide-scale death. I don't pretend to know what it is. By his works I know him, and if someone wants to come into my backyard, whatever his intentions, and tell me what to do instead of convincing me to do it, he is evil, whatever he believes his intentions to be. I think that the US government has done an evil thing in spreading its military bases all over the globe and imposing its political will on other places. I think that the isolationist political spirit is an excellent idea (and that free international trade is also an excellent idea). Seperation of commerce and state would be a good thing. I think that there is more than one right way to live, and that while the American way of living is right for Americans, it should not be imposed on other people.
The USA should keep enough military to defend their territory, and to retaliate if necessary: "a well-regulated militia" is a fantastic idea. It's not anyone's business to get involved in everyone else' political affairs. If the Middle East doesn't want to sell you oil, well, go without. If you're running out of water, well, you overpopulated yourself and you'll have to deal with the consequences. If you don't have enough food, well, starve and deal with the consequences of poor planning. If other people don't have enough food, they can starve, and so be it. They outstripped their resources and feeding them will just make the problem worse. Bleeding-heart generousity, well-meaning "help" and meddling in the affairs of others is a bad idea. If you're killing off the ecosystem in your country, well, kill it off and make your entire country a desert. Don't support it by raping the rest of the world. If you want to kill off all the people, tribe by tribe, take their land, their food, herd them into reservations, and destroy their homes, well, so be it. Do it in your own territory, and reap the consequences yourself.
My country is guilty of these things as well. Guilty as much if not more. I'm not pretending Canada is some kind of land of the free, we're every bit in the same boat as you are. We're just America Lite in that regard. We suck, too. We're overstripping our resources, we're living in an economic paradigm that absolutely requires economic growth in order to not collapse - and we're destined for self-destruction, too, if we keep on this path. The question is how many other people we take down with us when we do.
... and I have the flu. I'm sorry if this offends you, but I mean what I say.
Re: o/` ranting and raving and carrying on o/`
Date: 2003-01-04 06:50 pm (UTC)It's too narrow a leap from isolationism to the current, xenophobic, "who cares, they're only foreigners" mindset which has infected a majority of society. It isn't an attitude which particularly deserves tolerance. That moi-uber-alles mindset's diametrically opposed to civilization.