Sunday, July 3, 2011

The Declaration of Independence: An Informal Vernacular Annotation by David Sepe (7/4/10)


Today is the 4th of July. On this day in 1776 one of the “timeless documents” of the Enlightenment was bestowed upon the world. The key points of the Enlightenment (Thank you, John Locke), as well as in our Declaration of Independence, are as follows:

1. Nature has a Law to govern itself: REASON
2. Divine Right (Idea that one human can politically determine the outcome of another human life based on a belief that “God” chose them to rule over the many) was to be abolished.
3. Political Power is to be exercised with the “consent of the governed.”
4. Freedom, Rights, and Opportunities need to be protected, in writing.

When in the course of human events, (THINGS HAPPEN IN LIFE…THINGS CHANGE…WHAT I WANT TODAY MAY NOT BE WHAT I WANT TOMORROW…) it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, (AND SOMETIMES PEOPLE NEED TO SPLIT APART OR MOVE AWAY FROM OTHERS) 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, (TO BECOME WHO THEY WANT TO BE AND NOT LIVE A LIFE UNDER THE CONTROL OF ANOTHER OPINION…MUCH LIKE A CHILD WILL ONE DAY BE EQUAL TO THEIR PARENTS IN THAT THE CHILD WILL GROW INTO A 40 YEAR OLD AND SHOULD HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE DECISIONS FOR THEIR OWN FAMILIES) a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation (THE REASONABLE THING TO DO IS COME RIGHT OUT IN THE OPEN AND TELL THE OTHER ENTITY WHY THEY NEED TO CHANGE THE CURRENT ORDER OF THINGS).

We hold these truths to be self-evident: AN INSULT TO THE KING, INSINUATING THAT ESSENTIALLY, EVEN AN IDIOT KNOWS, SINCE IT’S SELF-EVIDENT,

That all men are created equal; (ALL MEN/HUMANS ARE EQUAL IN THE OPPORTUNITY TO DEVELOP INTO THE PERSON THEY WANT TO BECOME…THEY ARE NOT EQUAL IN OUTCOME…THIS THEORY IS FOUND IN NATURE, MUCH LIKE GRAVITY…WHEN YOU DROP A PEN OR AN APPLE FROM 3 FEET…THEY BOTH DROP TO THE GROUND AT THE SAME RATE…THE APPLE IS NOT GIVEN MORE OF AN ADVANTAGE DUE TO ITS GREATER SIZE) that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; (THAT SOURCE WHICH CREATED EXISTENCE PLACED WITHIN ALL HUMANS THE RIGHT TO OPPORTUNITIES) that among these are life, (THRIVE) liberty, (FREE TO CHOOSE THE OPPORTUNITIES THAT ALLOW FOR ONE TO THRIVE) and the pursuit of happiness (PROPERTY AND POSSESSIONS THAT ONE NEEDS TO THRIVE); that, to secure these rights (FREEDOMS AND OPPORTUNITIES), governments (LAW MAKING ENTITY…LAWS ARE MANMADE LIMITATIONS OF THE SCOPE OF A CITIZENS RIGHTS, FREEDOMS, AND OPPORTUNITES…LAWS ARE NOT FREEDOMS…FREEDOMS ARE FREEDOMS…OPPORTUNITIES ARE OPPORTUNITIES…FREEDOMS ARE FREEDOMS) are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed (POWER TO CREATE A LAW, OR A LIMITATION OF A FREEDOM, COMES FROM THE PEOPLE WHO ARE BEING “GOVERNED” BY THAT LAW…THE POWER TO ELECT REPRESENTATIVES WHO BECOME LAW MAKERS RESTS IN THE HANDS OF THE ELECTORATE); that whenever any form of government (LAW MAKING ENTITY) becomes destructive of these ends (LAWS THAT LIMIT CITIZENS OPPORTUNITIES), it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government (LAW MAKING ENTITY), 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 (WE GET THE GOVNERNMENT WE DESERVE). Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments (LAW MAKING ENTITY) long established should not be changed for light and transient causes (i.e. RAISING OR LOWERING TAXES DUE TO SOUND MONETARY AND FISCAL POLICIES); and accordingly all experience hath shown 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 (LAW MAKING ENTITY), and to provide new guards for their future security (WHEN GOVERNMENTS MAKE LAWS WHICH LIMIT FREEDOMS, RIGHTS, AND OPPORTUNITIES…IT’S UP TO THE PEOPLE TO ACT…WITHIN “LAWFUL” MEANS). Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies (WE TRIED BEING “COOL” ABOUT IT, BUT THE KING, AN ABSOLUTE LAW MAKER, NEVER LISTENED TO US…AND NOW WE HAVE TO “GO OFF,” DUE TO THE SIMPLE FACT THAT KING IS MAKING LAWS WHICH ARE RECKLESSLY AFFECTING OUR LIVES AND IF WE SIT AND DO NOTHING, OUR FREEDOMS WILL BE EXTINGUISHED); 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 (THE KING WON’T LISTEN TO US…HIS LAWMAKING PROCESS IS NOT “REASONABLE.” .” IT’S NOT BASED ON “SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS” OF HUMAN NATURE. THE KING KEEPS TALKING ABOUT “GOD” SAYING HE’S IN CHARGE, YET I PRAY TO THE SAME “GOD” AND “GOD” NEVER MENTIONED ANYTHING TO ME ABOUT THE KING BEING THE ABSOLUTE “BOSS OF ME.”). 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 endeavored 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 benefits 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 neighboring 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 complete 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 endeavored 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 (WE REALLY TRIED BEING COOL ABOUT THINGS): Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury (EVERYTIME THE KING RESPONDED IN AN IRRATIONAL MANNER BY STATING HE DID NOT EVEN HAVE TO LISTEN TO OUR PROBLEMS). 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. (GOD DID NOT BLINDLY GIVE TO ANY ONE PERSON THE POWER TO DETERMINE THE OPPORTUNITEIS OF OTHERS)

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 (YOU CAN’T MAKE THE LAWS FOR US IF WE DON’T HAVE REPRESENTATIVES HELPING TO MAKE THE LAWS) . 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 (FIRST TIME THE “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” WAS PUT IN PRINT, 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 (THAT’S IT…WE’RE BROKEN UP); 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.

No comments:

Post a Comment