The Declaration of Independence though actually signed on the 2nd of July, wasn't adopted by the First Continental Congress until the 4th of July, 1776. 

 

The Fourth of July.  A distant memory.  We celebrate the fourth with fireworks.  Forgetting that the symbolism is in the bombs, rockets, cannon and rifle/ musket shots exchanged with our brothers in a bloody and violent rebellion that ultimately led to the shedding of our bondage from our central government -- the King of England -- which lasted a scant few years. 

 

Freedom. 

 

Ending when the Constitution began our second bondage to a new central government some nine years later. 

 

But the fourth recognizes the formality, the legality, the legitimacy of announcing to the world that a group of people can declare themselves free from their rulers. 

But besides the incredibly stirring words of freedom from tyranny, and the wonderfully long list of grievances against their current lawful government contained within -- most of which are applicable to today's Americans and their ruling governments -- this Declaration of Independence made note of what the single purpose of government was intended and promised: To protect our right to our life, our liberty and our pursuit of happiness.

This magnificent document, and the grievances contained within this document did not happen overnight.  They were years of accumulation of petty thefts and regulations by government in seemingly endless and uncaring fashion, and the costs of a war  accumulating to a breaking point that started over a decade prior to July of 1776. 

It is important to note, that the revolution did not occur overnight, but in the end it did happen all at once.  It was a straw that broke the camel's back.  A Rosa Parks kind of moment.  Someone, somewhere had fired the shot and paid the price.  This undoubtedly occurred over and over again, until finally one shot was fired that led to an uprising, that quickly led to a rebellion.  A festering anger against the government that finally boiled over and rapidly spread.

Then it was the responses of government, or lack thereof, throughout the Empire, that led to the rebellion.  While sitting on a tinderbox in many a city and colony, and news of rebellion spread; ultimately it was both the ignoring of complaints lodged with government protesting its regulation and confiscation, and the subsequent militant clampdown in communities not yet committed to rebellion that led to igniting the fires of civil war. 

So today we see over two and a half  centuries of our earnings being stolen, and especially the past century our own currency being used against us and devalued to fund wars to the point of its utter worthlessness.  Whether it is the federalization of the states, their law enforcement, their schools, their charities, their industries, their government functions we see the ever expanding apparatus of the state built to monitor, influence, repress, imprison and rob the populace. 

So here we stand at the precipice.  A broken nation. Bankrupt of economy, ethics, governance and liberty.  Regimented.  Robbed.  Enslaved.  Persecuted.  Discriminated.  Cataloged and categorized.  Ordered about and living in fear.  And one has to ask at what point do Americans, if they still exist, finally refuse to swallow the next shit sandwich?  What straw will break the camel's back?  Who will finally say "no!," and instead of being immediately grabbed have their fellow citizens back them up.  Stand up to the enforcement goons of the government.

The Ron Paul R3VOLution has brought hope that Americans are not dead.  Are not docile.  Are not whipped.  Are finally having enough.  The youth are well aware that they will never see a dime of Social Security or Universal Healthcare despite having their earning increasingly robbed for such "benefits."  Through exposure to Aaron Russo's America: From Freedom to Fascism, many now know that the value of their earnings is annually ever more greatly depleted to empower and enrich a political establishment in this nation, and those to whom they are subservient.  The Internet has increasingly spread and exposed the truth of what is going on and why.  The truth shall set them free.

There are those who hold out hope for a peaceful resolution to our complaints, just as a majority of colonists still hoped that King George would intercede against the dictates of Parliament only to finally realize the king was as much behind the dictates and looting as the Parliament.  So too are we offered the fiction of a tripartite government overseeing one another; competing to make sure the others do not overstep their bounds in its Constitutionally authorized mandate and limitations. 

So too are we offered the fiction that we have two political parties at each others throats competing for our votes and therefor limiting the other to how much political power may be co-oped and commanded. 

So too are we offered the fiction that all the numerous  governments that feed upon us are really subservient to our will.  That we are the masters and they the servants.

So long as we do not try to enforce this fiction we are generally left alone to work and be taxed.  To live our lives and be taxed.  To raise a family and be taxed.  To die and be taxed.

Some people seem to think they cannot possibly live, cannot possibly survive without government to care for them. To protect them from what government tells them to fear.  

Others fear the attentions of their government and meekly submit to the whims and confiscations of their "servants."  Secure in the knowledge that the power of their servants, the authority of their servants comes from votes available to be cast by the majority of the population should they choose.  Even were this true, as if the will of the majority -- that the framing fathers knew all too well to be a dangerous force -- had any authority, any legitimacy to determine our lives, our liberties or our pursuits of happiness. 

And so I wait.  I meekly submit.  I wait to see when that brave soul who unknowingly exists even now out there somewhere who followed so many brave souls before them, who will  defy government for that one last time.  That raises the anger of all of those around them to figuratively pick up torches and pitchforks, and storm the walls and reclaim yet again their freedom for themselves from government.

It is a revolution that sadly must occur over and over again upon this planet until free people refuse to allow anyone to have dominion over them in exchange for the promise of security.

It seems to me long overdue to start writing that list of grievances.  I know it to already be a rather long list.  I suppose such a journey begins with the first step in the footprint of our framing fathers.