09.12.09 – The American Revelation

“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny.  When the government fears the people, there is liberty.” –Thomas Jefferson

09.12.09 – Some are calling it the beginning of the Second American Revolution.  Yet the hope is (for now at least) that this “revolution” will be fought with words rather than guns; on the battlefield of ideas rather than in bunkers all across the fruited plain.

I, for one, was there – a witness to history.  I’m still trying to figure out the progression of events that led to me to the west lawn of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., at precisely 12:12 p.m. on 09.12.09.  I am a 34 year-old American; a father of 3; a small business owner; and a husband to the most ordinary-in-mind, yet extraordinary-in-thought, woman in the world.  I graduated from a small high school, grinded my way to an undergraduate degree; suffered through 3 long years of law school; lived in Missouri my entire life; and, somehow, someway, on 09.12.09, I found myself there – in our nation’s capital – standing face-to-face with hundreds of thousands of Americans, unified in purpose and message: “Don’t Tread on Me.”

It was amazing; historic; momentous; unbelievable and indescribable.  In fact, at one point during the march from Freedom Plaza to Capitol Hill, I sent out a “tweet” from my phone: “I literally have no words to describe this right now.”  Even now, I’m not sure that I do…or ever will.  And yet, when it was over, and we had returned to our hotel room, anxious to view the “postgame” coverage on all the news channels, it was as if nothing at all had happened.  Feverishly flipping through the cable channels and local news stations to find something – anything – about this unprecedented march, it was as if it had all been a dream, a sweet escape from the realities of the harsh condition which has befallen us.  But, I was there! I witnessed it with my own eyes – the passion, the resolve and the sheer determination of hundreds of thousands of individuals acting as one: “e pluribus unum.”

My first reaction was one of disdain and disappointment: “Here we go again…the ‘mainstream media’ buries another story that doesn’t promote and advance its agenda.”  Disgusted and defeated, I was on the verge of throwing in the towel; but then, the strangest thing happened.  I went to dinner with my wife and met up with some fellow 912 marchers and began to discuss the day’s events.  Before we knew it, others in the restaurant were overhearing our conversations; we were overhearing theirs; the bartender was asking questions about ‘all of these people’ who had invaded his city: “What was this all about?” he asked.  “Let me show you our pictures,” we said.  “Wait a second,” the others replied, “take a look at ours.”  We ate, we drank, we exchanged stories, photos, videos, and before the night was over, people from other tables wanted to join in the conversation.  College football games dominated the televisions; Serena Williams dropped F-Bombs at the U.S. Open; the NFL season was set to kick off the next day; it was Saturday night; and nobody wanted to talk about anything but “this movement.”

The next day (09.13.09), before boarding a plane to head back to Missouri, my wife and I decided to “do the touristy thing” and take in a few sites.  We took the long stroll up to the Lincoln Memorial and spent some time reflecting on our Sixteenth President’s words which are literally engraved in stone on the walls of one of the greatest monuments in the world.  I had been there before.  I had read Lincoln’s words on numerous occasions.  But, on this date – at this moment – these words from his Gettysburg Address jumped out and jolted me:

“that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

I think it was at that moment that my revelation occurred – this is no longer about Democrat vs. Republican; Left vs. Right; Liberal vs. Conservative; or Blue vs. Red.  This is about We the People vs. Them.  This is about liberty vs. tyranny. This is about a “sleeping giant” who has been poked and prodded one too many times by an overreaching, overly intrusive federal government and we…have…had…ENOUGH!  Don’t Tread on Me!

So to all you politicians, whether Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative – in the words of President Obama, “Let me be clear” -

“We the People” are done with broken promises; we are done with bailouts; we are done with so-called “stimulus packages;” we are done with you making a career out of being a politician; we are done with you mortgaging our children’s future in order to buy votes to get re-elected; we are done with you creating one set of rules for us and a different set for you; we are done with you apologizing to the rest of the world for America being America; we are done with you calling us “uneducated,” “uninformed,” and “ignorant;” we are done with you not having to balance your checkbook the same way we have to balance ours; and most importantly, we are done with you pitting us against each other!  At the end of the day, we are all Americans, and we are sick of your games.  We refuse to play.  We will start a new game with our rules.

My revelation is that the revolution has begun.  All of this talk of “hope” and “change” – I have finally come to realize that WE are the HOPE; and we ARE the CHANGE.  We the People are the ones who will give “new birth to freedom.”  No one in Washington can do it – not Barack Obama; not any Democrat; not any Republican; not the media – only us.  You and me.  With each day that passes, Democrats and Republicans are becoming more and more irrelevant.  The “press” is becoming obsolete.  They are being replaced by talk radio, internet bloggers, twitter and other social media outlets.  They (a) think we’re too stupid to figure out on our own what’s really going on; and (b) are only concerned about their own financial security and advancement.  Why do you think they spend so much time looking down their noses and demeaning all of these mediums?  Why do you think they try to ignore hundreds of thousands of Americans converging on our nation’s capital to say “we have had enough”?

I still do not understand the progression of events that led me to Washington on 09.12.09.  I still cannot comprehend the historical significance of what I witnessed.  But I do know this – my wife and I arrived home on Sunday evening, 09.13.09, just in time to kiss our children and put them to bed.  As we walked through the door, my 3 year-old came bursting down the hallway, jumped into my arms and said, “Where were you, daddy?  I missed you!”  I squeezed her tightly and kissed her on the head as I replied, “Mommy and daddy were in Washington, baby.”

“Why were you in Washington, daddy?” she said.

“For you, baby.  For you.”

 

To view footage of the 912 March on Washington, go to: http://www.politicalmommentary.com

Every Day is Independence Day

 

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

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.

— John Hancock

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