I wanted to wish everyone as wonderful and safe Fourth of July. This holiday has particular meaning for many of us as we fight those who wish to destroy liberty and to terrorize people into submission. However, it is also a holiday to remember dangers closer to home from those who would deny free speech and due process from colleges to Congress.
Jack and I are still in Alaska so we will be missing the rest of the family in Virginia. Jack and I are planning to do Class V rapids today before heading to Whittier. We are going to try to pick up a couple of fireworks on the road to have our own small celebration.
Have a wonderful day and Happy Independence Day!
Also, Matt Taibbi’s latest article in Rolling Stone offers much room for thought : “In Response to Trump, Another Dangerous Movement Appears Fears of demagoguery are provoking a frightening swing in the other direction” Excellent article and interesting comments.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/in-response-to-trump-another-dangerous-movement-appears-20160630#ixzz4DVAZaETn
Joe Bageant came to mind today. I think he would have been delighted that the people are rising up to challenge the “man” His book “Deer Hunting with Jesus” was a revelation. RIP, Joe, but your work lives on!! It’s a Revolution that is continuining.
Had we retained the Articles Of Confederation, there would have been no ugliness in our history. Hamilton and company made possible the tyranny that now rules over us – as well as the reigns of such despicable figures as Lincoln, Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon. . . The list is endless.
JT, Your son will always remember this 4th of July one one one w/ his old man.
Also, on this day celebrating our Independence let’s keep our eyes on the TPP which will undermine our sovereignty. This issue is one that Progressives, Libertarians and Conservatives can unite to defeat. The corporate-controlled RNC and DNC are both dangerous to our democracy!
Happy 4th of July! It sounds like you’re having a lot of fun in Alaska. Stay safe on those rapids.
We just got home from driving our team in the parade. Had a great time, and the horses were troopers, staying calm with the cheering crowd, water balloon fights, planes flying overhead, drones hovering, and a mounted shooting demonstration.
This is definitely a time for appreciating all of our liberties and opportunities, which most of the world does not enjoy. I think, wouldn’t the world be a better place if every country had equality, free speech, and strong individual rights? Apparently, other people sit around and think the world would be a better place with tyranny, suicide bombs, the enslavement of women, killing non-believers, and killing little kids for insulting the prophet. Here’s to hoping more people come round to our way of thinking. And here’s hoping we hold on to our freedoms.
“The Meaning of July 4th for the Negro” – a speech by Frederick Douglass in 1852
Please read and compare to today
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 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 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.
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 Brittish 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.
You too, you are a blessing, be safe
Planning to march for freedom against the DNC! Love the concept of setting up “Clintonvilles”
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2016/06/28/dnc-protesters-plans-press-conference/
This should be Free Speech Day as well as Independence Day. Thank God we do not have a Queen and King. There are two prospects out there on the election platform.
Please do not curb speech on the blog by removing commentors– even if they are obnoxious.
Thank you Bill H for summarizing my thoughts. I no longer celebrate this day.
Professor, in order to better combat those who would strip us of our freedoms- avoid their language traps!
Happy Independence Day.
re: “uniformed thuggish cretins” – that was a rude sweeping generalization. No doubt there are many TSA workers who are very nice people who need a job.
Happy 4th Professor Turley!
I agree that “This holiday has particular meaning for many of us as we fight those who wish to destroy liberty and to terrorize people into submission.”
I am fearing the ever-expanding police state. This article about the teen who was assaulted by TSA agents made my blood boil.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/02/disabled-cancer-patient-tsa-lawsuit-memphis-airport
How much longer are we going to put up with this?? These uniformed thuggish cretins have “authority” over us? Have we lost our collective minds that we remove our shoes, belts, etc. and quietly shuffle in place so we can board an airplane? I won’t even bring up the “no-fly” list.
And if this woman wins the lawsuit who pays for it? The taxpayers.
We all need to recognize and be thankful for all the peaceful and thoughtful efforts that created our country and what it stands for. The violence, explosions, killing, and destruction should not be glorified.
“…we fight those who wish to destroy liberty and to terrorize people into submission.”
Yeah, right, “They hate us for our freedoms.” They do not wish to destroy freedom and they don’t care about our submission. They are fighting to get us to take our boot off their necks. They want our armed forces out of their countries. They want to stop the terror drones from killing them and their families without warning.
If somebody was raining Hellfire missiles down on Phoenix and Denver at the rate of several a week and killing more than a thousand of our wives and children per year, how would we react?
Their terrorist attacks are not by any means righteous, but neither are ours, and self-righteous posturing is not contributing to the solution.