I posted the whole text of The Declaration of Independence below knowing that you who take the time to put your thoughts in blog form are more likely than many to be familiar with its contents. I don't therefore presume to provide an educational experience based upon the belief that without my posting you might be ignorant of it. I do, however, enjoy reading it. It is my pleasure to share with you the things I enjoy.

I put in bold letters the revolutionary part of this founding document of our nation. The revolutionary idea it contains is that there is a power greater than human power - that being the power of the Creator - which no King is greater than; and that our rights come to us directly from this Creator; and that any government which attempts to arbitrate between the Creator and man, or which attempts to limit these rights, is illegitimate.

This contains not only the moral justification for our declaration of independence from Britain and the Crown in 1776, but also a moral imperative, or obligation, to aspire more fully to the great ideal this statement declares. Our history as a nation, in fact, is a history of that aspiration. Guided by such an ideal, it was impossible that the continuing practice of slavery could be long countenanced, and so we prevailed over it at the cost of half a million lives in a bloody war. Who will tell me that war was unjustified? Guided by such an ideal, it was impossible that we could long endure the oppression of people within our boundaries wherever it occurred, and our history is the story of Americans constantly aspiring to a more perfect demonstration of this founding principle.

We should take note that this statement does not say "All men - except Black ones." This statement does not say, "All men - except women." This statement does not say, "All men - except Muslims." This statement does not suggest, like George Orwell's Animal Farm, that "some are more equal than others." It is completely contrary to such an idea.

But it does say this:

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.

I would suggest that this sentence demonstrates a very well developed understanding of our moral position in the world, and the weight of responsibility that the revolutionary idea of our formation imposes upon us. Thomas Jefferson and the signers of this document well knew exactly what they were writing, signing, stating for posterity. I believe that there are many people in the world, and many in this country, who would prefer to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to accept the dangers, the risks, the responsibility of fighting for liberty.

Perhaps such people don't believe in a Creator; then, of course there could be no power greater than a government in their minds, and so it is government they must worship. People such as this would re-name our Revolution "The War for Independence," and attempt to re-write our history in order to remove from it the founding revolutionary principle contained in our Declaration. 

But in most cases, such people are merely without knowledge of what our founding principle is supposed to be, and what ideal it is to which we must constantly aspire; and this - not geography, not race, or creed or ancestral heritage - is the defining character of the American citizen.

I enjoy rights not at the pleasure of Government but at the pleasure of God; and Government can do nothing of value which interferes with that - in fact it is my obligation to abolish any government that tries to interfere with that, that tries to intercede between myself and my Creator, or limit the rights which flow to me from my Creator. The things I enjoy - like sharing this with you - flow from the rights I enjoy. Without those rights, any thing I have, any thing I am able to do, becomes valueless to me. There is no compromising with tyranny. To accept or tolerate tyranny is to relinquish my moral obligation to destroy it. Oppression clearly continues. Not only am I justified in my efforts to end it, but I am compelled by all that I hold sacred to do so, to whatever extent I can.

That's what I celebrate on Independence Day. No, I don't look any different than I do on any other day. I don't usually go to backyard parties, and I'm not a big fan of fire crackers. But I've written about it, and I'm reminded now - again - that when I observe current events, hear world and domestic news, that these above-stated principles, which are my understanding of what is contained in our Declaration, are my "bottom line," the context through which I view all I see. What advancs this ideal I will support, and what opposes this ideal I will fight to death to defeat.  

The 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.

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 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 and 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 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.

The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:

New Hampshire Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery Connecticut Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross Delaware Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean Maryland Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton North Carolina William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn South Carolina Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton Georgia Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

For additional information about the Declaration of Independence, see these sites: National Archives and Records Administration: Declaration of Independence Library of Congress: About the Declaration of Independence.

Thanks to the Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington, for the above transcript. 

"Love seeketh not Itself to please,

Nor for itself hath any care,

But for another gives its ease.

And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair."

 

So sung a little Clod of Clay

Trodden with the cattle's feet,

But a Pebble of the brook

Warbled out these metres meet:

 

"Love seeketh only Self to please,

To bind another to Its delight,

Joys in another's loss of ease,

And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite."

 

The Clod and The Pebble, 1794 

My friend awoke this morning to music played on an off-center harmonic stringed instrument of some kind, by the sound of it, which her mind chose to interpret as electronic, but "not" in a rather unsettling way. I was just over there clapping up the room. There is an interesting acoustic vein down the center, and her metal headboard has some bell qualities. Guests were upstairs, sleeping, and an inventory of their electronic gadgets turned up nothing resembling the sound she described. A friend told her she was going through a period of unstable dimensional events, but I gather that's just chicanery. What I do know is that she lives in a town famous for its queerness. As Rhubarb Valley is known for its eccentricities, my friend's area is infested with UFO's and various time distortions - to hear the stories of its inhabitants. I personally experienced events peculiar to that particular area, not the least of which was the turning on and off of distant radio stations much too far away to come in under normal circumstances, and the darned frustrating tendency of certain roads to come out in different places, or to be paved one night and dirt the next. The answer is always don't get out - keep driving. Enjoy the view. It is near there I had my close encounter with the cow, which story I have told. Also the white horse was there, although I have never again discovered that cemetery in that precise location. It was fairly obvious I had picked up a hitch hiker without knowing it. And that night I made the mistake of leaving my vehicle and walking some distance from it to investigate the sudden appearance of a small village or hamlet's lights through the trees where there had been none before, and then saw the horse, knowing it to be not just a horse. How relieved I was to turn to find my car still there that night. I'm not entirely without brains, and I knew it wouldn't have been good in any case to find the scene change had become permanent.

I told that one already, and the poem that came out of it - Come soflty while the beast is still asleep. You may dig into my archives to find it. So I told her to tape the room at precisely 5:20 tomorrow morning because it sounded like something that, were it to repeat, would not do so at random. Musical sounds are usually associated with ritual, I told her. Bell ringing in particular. Declining scales? That's more unusual. She's safe enough, I assured her. I was assured of only one thing, however: that what I told her scared her even more than what her dimension-distortion friend had said. I mean, what utter rubbish - everybody knows the word she was looking for is universes, not dimensions. All for a secret cell phone. And why is the cell phone a secret? What are the guests upstairs hiding from one another that one keeps a number unknown to his or her spouse?

Then of course, there's that odd acoustic vein. Clapping in a straight line down the center of the room over the bed created a metallic, almost musical harmonic tone. I gather I was in the 1850's addition to the house. I wouldn't be surprised to find a closed-up chimney flu in the supporting wall. There were no building codes regulating where you could poke holes in your house to evacuate smoke. This would have made a handy channel for old electric cables when the place was first wired - 1920's by the look of the old fixtures in the cellar. I also ruled out smoke and fire detectors, radon detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, and so forth. The TV was not set on a timer, or in sleep mode. Nor was the computer. I thought that about covered it. A passing vehicle remains a distinct possibility - except for the nearness of the sound she describes. She swears the source was in the room with her. I think it may be a combination of passing car and curious acoustic vein, the one vibrating the other.

Anyhooo, I'll be sitting outside an 1830's farmhouse in strange country at 5 o'clock tomorrow morning looking for the lights of the town, because what she described reminds me of the tune I heard on the night of the white horse. She has already been somewhat taken aback by the appearance of daytime through the front rooms of the house and night-time through the rooms in the rear, (or vice-versa?), but I know that's a common occurrence there, and no one's come to harm from it that I've heard of. My sons live in that town. Their mother's imagination doesn't quite take it in, but the little fellow has his special way and he tells me of the time "storms" he has experienced since moving there. They happen; time happens. If I see the lights of the town, or if I see the cemetery and the white horse, or either, I really don't know what I would do. I may simply approach them, see what adventures they promise. The white horse was not headless; it looked at me, in fact. This gives me some comfort it's benign, and waterhorses don't exist outside of Ireland to my knowledge. I'm dying to know who lives in the town. Can I help that I have a keen sense of curiosity when it comes to appearing-disappearing municipalities?

Wish me well!      

You can't love Humanity because when you try to love Humanity you end up playing God. You can only love people, who they are, not who you would like them to be. One day I will learn how to do that.

I never said that feelings aren't real. I said that feelings aren't facts. In other words, because a thing may be real that is not to say you are powerless over it. Case in point: My feelings tell me to beware the meeting of two minds when I believe that one of them hates me. Why do I believe that? Is it a fact, or am I projecting my own hatred? Sometimes the events we dread turn out to be easy. I fear getting my teeth fixed. Feelings govern me; fear controls my thinking. I know my feelings are not fact, but it is a fact that I have them. I must surrender; I must assent to divine mercy in order to overcome my fear. Noah and his one window is just that. And Paul saying "Be of good cheer" in the storm is just that. And Peter walking on the water is just that. He falls in only once he takes his eyes off the fact of Christ and sees the illusion of the water.

I'm quite imperfectly perfect in my own practice of these things. I don't know if I could ever be a good husband. But I do know that I could be a good friend.

The real reason why a person doesn't reach his full potential is never because The Nuns Beat Me, or My Family Is Dysfunctional. These negations of truth become our Psalms, and they replace the real ones. They stand in the way of reality and they alter our perspective so that this one seems to come from this planet and that one seems to come from another planet. We feel separate, alone, isolated, bitter, to the extent we wish to - in order to protect ourselves from the pain of surrender, assent to mercy.

The stories I have told myself are lies.

I know if I fear doing something I cannot ever hope to do it by waiting for my fear to vanish. I have to do it while still trembling with fear. I know that I may do it imperfectly but I must do it anyway. "Let the dead bury their dead." In other words, I will never do what I put off doing until the time is right by my way of thinking. There is no other time but now to do what wants doing.

Can I practice this? No. Can I talk about it? Yes. Sure, it's appropriate to pray for strength, for courage. But, by praying for faith alone these other things must come to answer it.

That's everything I've ever really learned, in summary. That's everything I know.