We Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident In the days between June 11 and 28 in 1776, Thomas Jefferson took pen to paper and wrote the Declaration of Independence. Ben Franklin and John Adams made some edits over the course of the next six days, and by the late morning of July 4, 1776, with the peal of bells in Philadelphia, the finished Declaration was adopted by the Congress. It wasn’t signed by all the members of Congress until August 2, and there were a few members of Congress who actually refused to sign – they were still hoping to work things out with England and thought signing it would be premature. Over the next eight years, the Revolutionary War took approximately 25,000 lives. Sadly, very few Americans have read the entire Declaration, the document that so many died for then, and have died for since, both on the battlefield and in the pursuit of rights and freedoms through protest. Most people have seen the document, with the big “We the People…” and many have heard this portion: “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…” The “consent of the governed” is an interesting phrase. What constitutes “consent”? Voting? Answering affirmatively in a poll? Not pursuing the actions in the Declaration’s next paragraph, wherein it’s stated that if we decide we don’t like the way things are going, we can start over? “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.” Have we reached that point? Some say we have. Members of the Tea Party, a corporate-sponsored group that tried to tie itself to the taxation-related portion of the Declarations’ grievances with England, are often heard to say they want to “take back our country.” From whom? The answer is usually “Obama!” but he can hardly be said to have stolen the country. The president still only runs one of the three branches of government, and while Congress is enjoying an historically horrendous approval rating and the Judiciary is making headlines by simultaneously delighting and angering people with its decisions on the Voting Rights Act and the Defense of Marriage Act, the country remains firmly in the grasp of… Well, of whom? We can’t really say it’s “the governed,” given that less than 25% of eligible Americans cast a ballot, and thanks to gerrymandering, many of the votes that are cast get chewed up in the machinations of those who don’t like how poor and non-white people vote. And thanks to the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court, corporations are funding elections to the point that they’re literally buying the outcome for the candidates who’ve promised to do their bidding. So what are “the governed” to do? Do we march down to Washington and throw the bums out? Do we work harder to get more people to the polls and try to offset the election-stealing impact of redistricting and voter ID laws? Do we demand real campaign finance reform and an amendment to undo Citizens United, so that corporations can no longer orchestrate corporate-friendly legislation at the expense of 98% of the people? Is it even still in our power to demand anything? How about we look to another declaration, made by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address on January 11, 1944, wherein he outlined a Second Bill of Rights. It might be handy to have this set now, given that our first Bill of Rights has been gutted by the USA PATRIOT Act, but that’s a topic for another column. Here is FDR’s list of things every American should have a right to: “In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race, or creed. Among these are: The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation; The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation; The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living; The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad; The right of every family to a decent home; The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health; The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment; The right to a good education. All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being. America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens. For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.”
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 00:08:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015