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 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
Posted by Matthewon 2006/6/11 16:50:00(1140 reads)
I saw this on YouTube and thought it was really interesting to watch, if not a bit sobering as well. You may be asking how I found it. Well, unfortunately I'll have to credit digg with that. Anyways, here's the video, brought right to this page by YouTube... unfortunately they're talking in Japanese so unless you know the language, you'll just have to watch. It's still worth it though!
This is why it's important to have a decent space agency with the funding to spot for these things.
One of the greatest things about the Internet is that you can find almost anything on it. When I say "almost anything", I really mean "almost anything". The only thing you won't find on the Internet is history. I'm not talking about History, but the history of small towns and other minor things that happened years upon years ago. Fortunately back then there was no such thing as "blogs". People actually had to write their thoughts down on a piece of paper, or in a binded book with paper. I know... it's downright stone age isn't it? Having written a letter recently, and sent it through the postal system, it's given me a better perspective on how the old folks used to communicate back when long-distance was expensive, and there was no such thing as the Internet. I have to give them credit, they did a good job roughing it.
Other than history though, it can oftentimes be difficult to find people. I have a friend who's trying to find many of her friends from years ago and I imagine with a bit of work she'll be able to find almost all of them with a little help from Google. I say this because I've found people I lost track of a long time ago, or vice versa. I leave the past in the past now 99% of the time though. It's nice to know people are getting along well with their lives, but there's no point in bothering them again. If it mattered that much, I wouldn't have lost track of them in the first place! With the Internet, it's hard to make the excuse that you can't get ahold of someone. Unless they completely closed up shop, killed their e-mail account, deleted any other accounts to other websites they might have, and left town, it should be relatively easy to find them using the Internet. With Google at your fingertips, nothing will remain hidden for long.
This brings me to the last thing, disappearing completely from the Internet is impossible. Even hiding behind a screenname is unlikely to protect you in the long-term, especially if you use it for more than one website. You'll just have to accept that once you've posted on the Internet, it's going to be there for a very long time. Needless to say, it would be wise to make sure that you're willing to stand behind what you say, or at least have a very good method for hiding your identity when you do say something. As more and more people become proficient with technology and the Internet, there's going to be more trouble with online stalking. You won't ever know about it until it's too late.
Note: I wrote this a bit late last night, so if it doesn't make much sense... well it'll be gone soon enough.
Posted by Matthewon 2006/5/10 23:20:00(1072 reads)
Unlike my friend, who is still a hardcore Star Wars fan (that even has a complete section for it on his website), I have seen the light. The light that shines on a massive pile of crap that has been coming out of George Lucas's uncreative mind since the days of the first remake of the original Star Wars series. Good God, that was awhile ago. Since then, we've pretty much seen it all. Variations of inconsequential scenes, additional footage, new effects, Padme and Anakin getting frisky, and so on. Unfortunately we haven't seen Anakin going nuts on those critters that killed his mother... that is still as of yet unseen, but for how long?
Just a few minutes ago I read a very amusing article on Wired about other potential Star Wars remakes. It looks like Star Wars is dead to him too, as it rightfully should be with everyone. Honestly, I'd just be pissed if someone went around screwing with all the Star Trek movies... even the crappy ones. I've seen them already, and besides the even numbered ones, I probably don't want to see them again for a very long time... retouched or even completely redone! So why does Lucas keep doing this to his beloved series? Is it because he truly wants to make it better, or because he's milking it until it's dry?
I vote the latter.
My God man, put out something new, or give up on movie making! Some of us people here can only handle your marginally better remakes, and crappy prequels being in theaters and rereleased so many times!!
Gas prices are out of control. Around here they've shot past $3.00 a gallon, and electricity bills are going up too. The Maryland legislature dropped the ball and the local energy monopoly BGE is expected to jack up prices by more than 50%. A major hurricane can shut down nearly all of the refineries in the "deep South", the mere thought of another conflict in the Middle East is enough to send the oil market spiraling out of control, and yet we still have Joe American driving his super-sized SUV that gets about 12 miles to a gallon of gasoline on his way to work--alone.
My family has never owned an SUV. Or any large vehicle for that matter. Gas mileage has always been one of the prime factors in car buying, and it's been paying off. My father's car can get almost 30 miles to the gallon on the highway, and my mother's can do even better. That's a start, and we've been doing our part to conserve energy... but it takes effort on everyone's part in order to successfully have an effect on the energy economy. If everyone drove fuel efficient cars, that would significantly lessen the demand on fuel, and lower prices. That's only the first step though; what we really need to do is find acceptable renewable energy sources and invest in them! Wind, solar, geothermal, hydrogen, bio-fuel, whatever it takes to get us off the oil addiction to power our cars and our lives. We need oil in order to produce plastic afterall, so we probably shouldn't be burning it all up.
In order to solve our growing energy crisis, we're going to need to be creative, willing to spend the capital to get started, and take the time out of our day to actively save energy. Turning off the lights, opening the windows instead of using air-conditioning, carpooling, buying smaller cars, and planning usage of the car will help stem the inevitable drought of oil a little bit longer as scientists work on new ways to power our cars, our homes and our businesses. Because in reality, oil companies aren't to blame for the high prices, we are! When Americans everywhere finally stand up and say enough is enough and trade in our mega-SUV's for small fuel efficient cars, gas prices will come down.
I do my part to help and it's important to remember that every little bit of energy conservation counts, so why don't you?
