People don't talk like that...

      I don't have the most discerning taste in movies. I generally just want to be entertained - give me an interesting story, multifaceted characters, some special effects, and a few clever quotes and I am generally good. National Treasure is one of those movies I like - it is entertaining, has enough mystery with just a hint of romance to be fun. There is a quote - a phrase really - that begs for more attention. When discussing the wording of the declaration, one of the characters says "People don't talk like that anymore." There is a certain wistfulness, a certain longing in the statement. There is a desire for something that has been lost. When we examine the Declaration, then look at the current state of our government, there is much to be wistful about.

     "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."
      This first section, by itself, is foreign to the modern politician and modern political models. It is an appeal to logic and based on both the laws of God and reasonableness of men.

     "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."     This section brings chills to any patriot and to those who love this country around the world. What are the truths that are self-evident? All are created equal by their creator - not that everyone has the same talent, same looks, same stature - such a statement would be stupid, but that all are given by their creator rights that are unalienable, that is to say, these rights cannot be separated from an individual. These rights are as much a part of an individual as his own blood. These rights are enumerated here as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." These rights do not flow from government, as governments are bodies of men who are fallible and equal, but Governments are the divinely appointed institution to protect these rights among men. Notice, in addition, that despotism and tyranny are rejected - "...Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from consent of the governed..." and "...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... most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." Safety and happiness - such a simple model. It is such a simple and elegant idea of government - a government that protects its people from outside threats and protects their rights to run their own lives. It is not a nanny-state, not a social-program-bloated-rotting-corpse of a government. It is the type of government that an infant country adopted in rebellion against the most powerful empire in the world. That infant country defied the greatest empire since the Roman legion conquered Europe, Northern Africa, Asia Minor, and West India. It was no light matter to this fledgling country to assert its right to self-governance - indeed it was only the "long train of abuses and usurpations" that manifested a "design to reduce them under absolute Despotism," that made them just to revolt. It was a right, a responsibility to revolt against the crown and take the reins for themselves. The repeated injuries, usurpations, and attempted tyranny forced the colonists to act.


"    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."     I don't have the time to go through this section bit by bit, but truthfully, the fathers said it better than I or anyone I have ever read or spoken with could. The massive expansion of government, the massive expansion of taxation with out representation, the blatant infringements upon basic liberties are parallel to Obama and progressives in every complaint. King George, meet King Barack. And what have we done in return. We the people have "petitioned for redress" continually and have been "answered only by repeated injury."

     " 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."
     This may be the most particularly damning part of the declaration towards the British at the time and to those in Washington D.C. today. Substitute the majority of the ruling class for the "Brittish brethren." The establishment republicans and democrats - the ruling elite - these have rebuffed the calls for a stop to the madness, the power-drunk behavior of our president and his enablers. Justice has fallen in the street. Reason and common sense have been run out of town. Have we now come to a point where we the people must hold the ruling class as separate: 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."     For their love of freedom, love of justice, hope for their posterity, for the hope for the country they were trying to build, our founding fathers took upon themselves the mantle of "traitor" in their day. These men signed this Declaration knowing it was equivalent to a death warrant. How is it that we have fallen so far, how have we given away so much? These men offered everything, gave everything they had to hand down freedom for generations to follow. They pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.


People don't talk that way today. They should.