More. Relevant. Than. Ever.
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.
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Judge J. Michael Luttig: Remembering America's Core Values
Even more than usual, the news cycle has the grim jostling with the ghastly.
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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 harrass 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 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….
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 Brittish 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.
No kings. No billionaires. No oligarchs. Just our band of brothers and sisters standing athwart the madness, saying “You Can’t be Serious.” To the Contrary is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
July 4 dogs
Moses celebrates No Kings Day…. (SOUND UP)
“A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”- Martin Luther King Jr.
The Fourth of July is today. A holiday that I used to enjoy, decorated fully and celebrated proudly.
I could not be more ashamed of our present government than I am in this moment.
This is the darkest moment in the history of our country as the Christian nationalist fascist 2025 plan architects are aggressively collapsing our democracy because they deemed that it and our constitution should no longer exist.
The alt right Republicans fascist authoritarians say they fly our flag upside down ( including at the home of one of our Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito ) to indicate “ crisis”. They think and believe
Humanity, empathy and compassion for all
Safety nets for people to live in dignity
Freedom of speech
Justice and equality for all
Fairness for all
Acceptance of all
Freedom for all
Having a “diverse fabric” in our society
No systemic misogyny
No racism
No antisemitism
No bigotry
Wanting reasonable gun control legislation
Wanting good healthcare for all
Having norms of decency, civility, honesty
prevents THEM from being free and means our country is in CRISIS thus they fly our flag upside down?!!!!!
All of us fighting to save our democracy and our constitution as intended by our founding fathers with
3 equal branches of government
All of our EQUAL rights
Freedom of speech
Absolute separation of church and state
The 14th amendment which was properly ratified and became part of our constitution ensuring birthright citizenship is now being ABOLISHED by the stroke of a pen by an individual president abusing the power of “executive orders”.
It must be pointed out here that we actually have a “person” sitting in the oval office that talks about, jokes about inflicting the most inhumane, brutal treatment on human beings.
That he laughs and jokes about with great glee , with the people around him, the possibility of poor immigrants or political opponents, getting eaten by alligators. He relishes in the thought of an another human being on this earth getting eaten by an alligator or being overtaken by poisonous snakes .
It is the dark darkest of dark and incredibly sick.
All of us standing together putting country before party standing up to unbridled lawlessness corruption and inhumane brutality in this fascist authoritarian takeover……..
Maybe WE should be the ones to fly our flags upside down on the Fourth of July as we are in a real huge constitutional crisis and our democracy rights and freedoms have never been more threatened in the history of the United States of America.
Justice and equality are two sides of the same coin.
What is there to celebrate?
We are NO LONGER the land of the FREE.
We are no longer the country that HELPS others or our own American people .
But we certainly are still home of the BRAVE as evidenced by the millions that came out for the “No Kings “ peaceful protests” . The power is still with the people
WE THE PEOPLE!!!
We must never forget we are on the right side of history . We are on the right side of what is right.