The regime of the Chimperator and the Christianist dominated Republican Party have done much over the last eight years to subvert the principals enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, a portion of which is quoted below, followed by an image of the original document. As Americans spend this holiday weekend at the beach, in the mountains, or in their back yards, I hope that some passing thoughts will be given to these principals and that maybe, just maybe, the citizens of the nation will realize that much must be done to turn back the erosion of liberties that have transpired, often as a result of fear mongering or efforts to pit one group of citizens against another by exploiting their differences instead of our commonality. I truly hope that November 2008 will see the stage set for a return to beliefs and values set forth in this document. Here are some of the powerful words written at a time when Virginia was a beacon of progressive thinking:
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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.
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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.
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