Detailing the crimes of our current tyrant
The founding of the united states is based in the blood of people of color. We can't deny this part of our history, but we can, I hope, work to dismantle the structures that were built by our ancestors that keep people of color marginalized. I am not celebrating today as an historical event, I’m using it as a platform for the future.
The declaration of independence spells out the rights we have to determine how we are governed. It was written by white men, thinking primarily of certain sorts of white men (not all the “founding fathers” were pro-enslavement, but I think nearly all of them were pro-landowner). Thing is, the wording is inclusive in a way they may not have originally intended, but is still apt to our more modern sensibilities.
This foundational document, that explains our objections to tyranny and reasons for resistance, has its problems, but it also contains a list of crimes committed against the colonists by their tyrant. These are snippets from the declaration of independence that seem pertinent today. Obviously many of these things aren't 100% correlated to today, and the crimes are not just those of our tyrant, but also the lackeys, sycophants, and collaborators who help him accomplish these crimes against us:
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.
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 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.
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 taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
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.
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.
