Fourth of July

The Declaration of Independence needs to be dusted off and re-published. Our situation today is similar to the one Americans faced in 1776.

In 1776, the Englsh King and Parliament had resolved their power-sharing conflicts of the previous century and together were absolute rulers of an empire which stretched around the world. In 2011, with the Citizens United ruling, a corporate oligarchy consolidated its power over a world-encircling empire, employing the US government as its bagman and enforcer.

According to the Declaration, government exists to enable us to secure for ourselves our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But the government of the corporate state has brought us death, from war, medical neglect, and environmental lunacy, the slavery of debt and economic depression, and the pursuit of fantastic wealth for a few and misery for the rest.

This corporate-owned and -controlled government cannot be allowed to continue to exist, because its existence is incompatible with the continued existence of civilized society, or with that of the earth itself.

As with the earlier revolution, carried forward in its earliest stages by a few radicals in Massachusetts, the seeds of the gestating revolution are mainly on the two coasts. Now as then, the awareness of the inevitability of revolution spreads slowly but inexorably due to our rulers' tyranny and use of oppression. Now as then, the vast majority at this stage of the struggle is either politically neutral, or committed to defending the status quo.

However, I have no doubt this revolution will eventually succeed, followed by a period of experimentation, then a re-establishment of democratic rule. This will happen because the corporatocracy is destructive, and through its policies of repression will dig up its own roots.

To this end we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.