Over 232 years ago our founding fathers issued the Declaration of Independence as a statement, a call, for all to understand the reasoning of why they were seeking to sever all ties with King George and Great Britain. A call for the creation of an independent nation of United States. The signers of the Declaration represented the 13 colonies… they were men who all had divergent interests, yet came together to speak with one voice. A voice strong and firm in its determination and conviction.
In today’s terms… this declaration was a call for change. A new government.
Just as the American People are today looking for new direction… new leadership… 232 years ago a group of men joined together to call out for a new way of government. A government that was of and for the people.
A few days ago, I decided to re-read the declaration of independence. It has been years since I read it last. In college I studied government and politics. I worked in Washington, in the executive and legislative branches and had indirect exposure to the judicial branch. That was almost 20 years ago. I was young and idealistic, I believed in a government that was ‘of the people and for the people’. I wanted to help America achieve its potential. Create an America that was great… an America that truly allowed all its citizen the right to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’.
The Washington I came to know was all about self interest, about money–influence and power. It was about raising money to get re-elected. It was about political and family connections. The Washington I was a part of rewarded loyalty and self-sacrifice… as long as it was for the benefit of the political leader, sponsor or benefactor. Washington was about special interest and what they could do to, or for you.
Special interests are on every side, of every issue. In ‘normal’ times these groups are usually in balance. The success of these interests, one side versus another, usually had a direct correlation to the power, influence and money of these groups. Of course, the only thing more powerful than all of these factors was a crises.
A military action, a workplace accident, a critical failure in government or business, a health scare or even a natural disaster… these are just some of the things that have become a crises situation in recent times. These events/situations forced something to be done… not usually out of a desire to right something wrong, but rather a fear that unless they did something, anything, they might lose money, influence and power… self interest rather than public interest.
20 years later. Washington has not changed much. Many of the names have changed and surprisingly many more have not. The financial crises, the banking failures, war in Iraq, 9/11, Katrina all served as catalyst for action in recent times. Congress and the President responded to these events. Responded only after they occurred.
As I read the following passage I was struck by how relevant its words were to us today. How 232 years later, this passage continues to hold meaning and truth.
“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.”
— The right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…. as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
In a few weeks, we will all be faced with a decision on who shall be our next President. The choice is real. The choice is critically important. At this point in my life and history, I can honestly say I’d like to vote for none of the above. I don’t believe that either major party candidate is right for this job. I believe Washington MUST be changed.
I don’t believe Washington can protect and guarantee my right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, in its current form or with its current leaders. I will cast my vote. My vote will go to Senator John McCain, a man who has made many sacrifices for his country. A man who has shown his love for this country. I only hope that he will govern differently. Work towards creating a government that is better, that is more truly for the people and of the people.
Below is a copy of the Declaration of Independence, I encourage everyone to read it before they vote and to cast their vote with this document in mind.
hen 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
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Tags: 2008 election, Congress, declaration of independence, government, John McCain, Presidential election
