Would You Sign?
What kind of radical nonsense is this? The first portion of this petition was passed out at a History of the Constitution class at Baylor U. The prof asked how many of the students would sign it. They were, for the most part, quite appalled.
Would you sign this petition?
Certain truths are obvious, for example all men are born equal. God then blesses them with specific rights as follows: (1) the right to live, (2) freedom, (3) the privilege to seek happiness. In attempting to obtain these rights, men create governments. The governments then get their power from the people they govern.
We the undersigned accept the above, but in addition we think that when any government stands in the way of these goals, the people have the right to change or destroy it, and to form a new government. The people may ground the new government on such ideas and methods of organization that seems to them the best way of achieving their safety and happiness. Wisdom tells us that our government should not be changed for minor and silly reasons, and history shows that men have always stuck with their form of government as long as they could bear up under the evils forced upon them, instead of seeking their rights by tearing down the government they are used to. But when the people have taken all they can stand and seen their rights denied, with the same thing facing them in the future which can result in nothing more than their complete control by a dictatorship, then it is their right and responsibility to rid themselves of this government and to set up new defenses for the future.
I hereby sign this petition as a statement of principles to which our government should be loyal.
Pretty radical, eh?.... or is it?
Now here's the same petition as originally written:
Declaration of Independence
“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 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 affect 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 shown 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.”
Declaration Of Indendence - complete text
For Liberals who have a hard time reading long documents, here's a reading of the Declaration of Independence by President John F. Kennedy, who, BTW, was a Democrat.
