On the Other Hand...
by Jim Davies
1776, And Now All This
Have you had it up to here with government and its petty regulations and restrictions and taxes? - I have. And so had the first Americans.
They wrote down what they felt in the Declaration of Independence - perhaps the most important document of freedom ever written.
Its preamble is magnificent and timeless, with its sublime recognition of what human life is for, what government is for, and what to do when it exceeds those duties. The list of specific reasons they wrote, however, needs an update.
Therefore, to help celebrate July 4th, I now present a current version (though in the original style) to follow that preamble in a 1993 Declaration of Independence. It was drafted by Vincent Miller and Jarret Wollstein of the International Society for Individual Liberty (1800 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94102.) My thanks to them both!
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WE THE PEOPLE of these 50 States have patiently suffered mounting government outrages against us - lies, corruption, legal plunder and terror. We have waited in despair for reforms and redress, but the outrages have only gotten worse. We can now wait no longer. The fundamental rights of the people must be restored now . Government's role must be limited to protection of our lives, liberty and property. These are the crimes of the State against its citizens:
THEY HAVE erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance. The IRS, Justice Department, police, State and local revenue authorities, and a growing list of other government agencies have engaged in an escalating orgy of terror, looting and wholesale seizure of private wealth to feed the appetite of arrogant and rapacious bureaucracies.
THEY HAVE subverted the electoral process through unjust and exclusionary ballot-access laws. Vast sums of tax-extorted monies have been used to create a Congressional Monopoly and Imperial Presidency, which have crushed dissent and excluded any serious challenge to their power.
THEY HAVE multiplied laws beyond reason or humanity, subverting both the words and intent of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. There is not a single American who could not be arrested, imprisoned and impoverished for violating one of the millions of arbitrary and incomprehensible government laws and edicts now in force.
THEY HAVE instituted oppressive and destructive taxes; stolen over half our incomes year after year; compelled us to testify against ourselves by filling out endless compulsory reports; made us in to unpaid government spies and tax collectors; and destroyed our peace, security and freedom in order to finance their oppressive bureaucracies, failed social programs, and wars of agression.
THEY HAVE seized control of our economy and have dictated and controlled every aspect of how our businesses must be operated. They have issued edict upon edict, issued regulation on top of regulation, instituted fine after fine, treated us as common criminals, imprisoned us and seized our property.
THEY HAVE destroyed our financial security. They have debauched our currency, substituting worthless paper for gold and silver. They have clandestinely seized our banking system - inflating the currency and looting the economy. They have burdened us with enormous deficits and waste which have brought our nation to the brink of bankruptcy. They have destroyed jobs and stifled initiative with suffocating regulations and oppressive bureaucracies.
THEY HAVE hobbled and corrupted our system of justice by creating endless numbers of technical crimes against the State, and crimes without victims - making vices into crimes, dissent into treason, and sensuality into perversion. They have seized billions of dollars worth of property without due process of law, imprisoned countless thousands without indictment or trial, and have made equal justice under law impossible by manipulating courts and juries, terrorizing our attorneys, and seizing their fees.
THEY HAVE kept among us,in times of peace, Standing Armies. In direct violation of the Constitution, US troops have repeatedly invaded and reduced to ruin foreign countries without declaration of war by Congress. They have used force to compel our children to fight and die in foreign wars far removed from their homes. In the name of the War on Drugs they have declared open war on the people of the United States, invading farm and field, village and home, and spreading terror across the land.
THEY HAVE perverted our relations with other nations, using their power to support foreign despotisms. They have bribed other nations with foreign aid, restricting foreign trade, and exported massive quantities of weapons of death and destruction - fomenting discord, repression and war throughout the world.
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Some of the above may come as new news to many readers, even as overstatement; just as the complaints listed in the 1776 Declaration would come as news to those informed only by media censored or controlled by agents of King George.
But they are all true nonetheless, and can be documented, chapter and verse.
And our intrusive government will only go away, dear Reader, when you and I work as diligently and courageously as Jefferson, to "alter or abolish it."