Obama Citizenship

In Congress, 233 Years Ago

By Phil

My family and I celebrated with fireworks a bit early this year. A number of local churches came together to launch a fireworks display a day earlier in an attempt to coincide with the city’s display that was otherwise slated for this evening. A great time was had by all.

During and towards the end of the display (especially with the major “report” shells that produced “canon-sized” explosions of approximately 4 per second over 10 seconds, enough to make the ground shake), not only was I reminded of a infinitessimally small taste of what it would be like to hear sounds on a battlefield, but it was also a reminder of what my own forefathers and our country’s forefathers, in general, gave up and did for everyone’s independence.

And while it will always fascinate me that on issues such as presidential eligibility there are those who scoff at the idea of enforcing 62 words of the Constitution (Article 2, Seciont 1, Clause 5), it is of utmost importance that we remind ourselves that on this date, 233 years ago, the founders of America penned the following as the opening salvo to what we call the Declaration of Independence (h/t InvestigatingObama for the inspiration):

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.

Have a great fourth.

-Phil

Full post as published by The Right Side of Life on July 04, 2009 (boomark / email).