With Liberality and Unjustice for All

 

The Declaration of Independence – 1776 “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.”

This July 4, 2024, the United Stated of America will celebrate 248 years of being a Constitutional Republic where the people are to be represented in government by representatives, they have elected to act on their behalf, to protect their rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It seems “We the People…” lack representation, once again.

In the year 1787, at about the time the original 13 states adopted their new constitution, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinborough), had this to say about “The Fall of the Athenian Republic” some 2,000 years earlier.

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy - always followed by dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations have always progressed through the following sequences: * From bondage to spiritual faith; * From spiritual faith to great courage; * From courage to liberty; * From liberty to abundance; * From abundancy to complacency; *From complacency to apathy; * From apathy to dependence; * From dependency back to bondage.”

[Proverbs 30:11-14] A political cartoon by Bill Stanford, published in our local newspaper (Wilson County News – Celebrating 40 years of publication) October 5, 2005, p.9a, pictures a boy reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with tears running down his cheek. “I pledge allegance to the flag of the United States of America – and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, partisan, agnostic and blatantly irreverent, with liberality and unjustice for all.” Who would have guessed how fitting those words would be relating to our current political environment 19 years later? Pray for our representatives. God save US