In Congress, July 4th, 1776...
In my little town, today, we read aloud the Declaration of Independence,
each person choosing what part they wanted to read.
These will be spliced together for CCTV.
I read part of the list of harmful deeds being done by a tyrannical king
to the people and their legislative governments.
each person choosing what part they wanted to read.
These will be spliced together for CCTV.
I read part of the list of harmful deeds being done by a tyrannical king
to the people and their legislative governments.
It sounded alarmingly familiar.
Just for fun:
ReplyDelete"I have a pet tree. It's a lot like having a pet dog but the bark is much quieter."
Susan
(I'll see myself out now)
Very funny. *grin*
DeleteHumour helps! Keep 'em coming!
DeleteActually, I kind of have three pet trees...a dwarf Juliet Cherry, a dwarf Romeo Cherry and a Sugar Maple. I'm also rather fond of the Birches out back that Shiloh rescued from developers decades ago, and the little Red Oak volunteer that we rescued from the edge of the driveway.
Our various Crabapples are appreciated too.
DeleteHowever, I am not fond of the White Pines that threaten our house every time the wind gets high.
Over the years, we've had to take down a few white pines that posed danger, either leaning or being partially blown down. They don't seem to be friendly trees.
DeleteI just updated the front page.
ReplyDeleteThe person ahead of me read this part of the list of grievances against the king:
DeleteHe 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.
This is the part I read:
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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.
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I chose to not read this last grievance, as it speaks of Native Americans as savages:
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.
I'm so sorry some people are too thick-headed to *get* it even if you sat them down and read it to their stupid faces. Susan
ReplyDeleteTonight, Wil and I watched the second episode of the miniseries "John Adams," titled "Independence."
ReplyDeleteWe both give it our HIGHEST recommendation!!