| Author | Message | ||
| David Clark (Dclark)
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Letter to America: It Wasn't Just Ink copyright 2005 David Clark P.O. Box 148 Cochran, Ga. 31014 office@outofthesky.com www.outofthesky.com It was the finest moment in many a town crier's career, as he stood on a barrel crying out to people just like you and me: "When in the Course of human events," and you know the crier paused right then and looked out at the crowd; "it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another" and everyone knows that he's talking about us, about you, about me -- we are the One People he's talking about. And everyone stood a little straighter. Men looked at each other and nodded. "We hold these truths to be self-evident" and you can imagine that the crier paused again and looked out, letting the words sink in -- that we -- you and me, all of us here, right now, believe that the things on this paper are so true and so obvious and so deep down inside of us that no one can deny it; "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." The crowd listened on in silence through a long list of complaints about the government across the sea. And the crowd listened to the declaration that the people of these newborn colonies would no longer stand for being dogged around. Men put their arms around their wives and their children. Women held on to their husbands. Sisters held on to brothers. Mothers held on to their sons. Everyone was proud at this moment. And everyone was scared. They knew blood would flow on account of the words the crier called out to them. They had pledged in late night meetings that the blood to flow could be their own, as they put their right hand into their neighbor's right hand and looked him in the eye. The blood to flow would come from this group. It would come from every family; from every community. The crier continued on to the end, where he slowed way down: "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." The crowd stood silently when it was over. No one cheered. Everyone was thinking that all over the countryside at that same moment there were men and women just like them who had heard the same words read out loud in stores, on porches, in churches, and on dusty street corners. And everyone knew the British were listening, too. To celebrate this event, I downloaded the text of the Declaration of Independence. As I waited on it to come across the phone line it occurred to me that I could not remember having ever read it. I had seen the real thing in Washington; I had a replica of it when I was a kid. I'm not sure if I could read the handwriting on it, though, and no one ever got around to making us read it in school. But we talked about what it meant, and how it came into being. I was fascinated by the stories of poorly dressed men who gathered to face down the big boys in the fancy red coats. I can remember thinking about how powerful it must have been as one neighbor after another looked each other in the eye and pledged to die side-by-side for the freedom they were all hoping for. I remember wondering about being created equal. I remember wondering about liberty. I remember wondering about a thing called sacred honor. I remember wondering about a thing so powerful that men and women would be willing to die for it. One time Dad talked to a group of us Cub Scouts about freedom. Of all the things we must have talked about that year, this is the only topic I remember. We were old enough to start getting rambunctious; but when Dad started talking about the word freedom and the meaning of it, I remember that we all paid attention. Daddy told us that we were free to do as we pleased as long as we didn't infringe on the rights of others. I have spent the rest of my life since then chewing on the many flavors of freedom, trying over and over to understand what the word really meant; discovering in my own small experiences what is meant by the rights of others, as I have been both the stepper-on and steppee of toes. I have read about the men who put this country together. Imagine being on that committee. These boys were going to stand up to the boss in a big way. Their neighbors looked them in the eye, shook their hand, and said "Go ahead, we're right beside you." Imagine how it must have felt when the battles were over and the reality that the fight for freedom had been successful. Now it was up to those who had won the battle to be better men than the tyrants they defeated. Over and over again in the history of our country, there have been voices of discontent utilizing the freedoms bought by the blood of these first American soldiers. The folks in power have probably always thought about ways to silence the nuisance of disagreement. I wonder if kids still wonder about what liberty is, and I wonder if anyone still tells them how it started. The folks who got up the idea of Independence in the first place knew they were creating an ideal which would never be realized. They were trying to set in motion a world which was far better than the one they lived in. They were looking ahead to people like you and me to continue the work they began in 1776. They knew their words would be remembered and talked about long after they were gone. Now, we live in a world where knowing our neighbor is an oddity. We talk tough about defending our homes against intruders, but I wonder if we could gather even a small group of men and women together who would be willing to die in order to defend their town from an idea. In 1776, the villain was the King of England. As soon as independence from him was gained, the villain moved to America. The biggest adversary to the freedoms gained in those days has been the actions of those who would be tyrants if they could and, even worse, the inactions of those who would allow them to be. The Declaration of Independence was written in ink, but what made the ink stick to the paper was the blood of men and women who gave their lives to the protection of the ideas expressed in that document. The King of England was the enemy, and what he was trying to control were the different ideas of the raggedly dressed men and women who were carving a life out of the wilderness. These same men and women put on better clothes and proceeded to violate the very ideas their brothers and sisters had died for, as they learned how to be the pusher instead of the pushed-around. This weekend, while you're enjoying the day off and the food and the beer, take a minute to think about having the Liberty to do it. Gather your kids around and tell them anything you know about the men and women who were willing to stand and die for an idea. Shake the hand of an old man or woman, because they probably helped defend those ideas during their younger days. Thank a veteran of any age, and thank his or her family. It's likely they know first-hand what it's like to hear bullets whizzing by while men scream in agony. Take five minutes and read the Declaration of Independence. Turn the zombie-making television off, and spend some time being a fully alive man or woman, and spend that alive-time thinking out loud with your family and friends about what it must have been like to only dream of Liberty. Think and talk with others about what it must have been like to join with others who were willing to stand and die for Liberty. Think about what is was like to shovel the dirt on top of the graves of kinfolk and neighbors who caught a lead ball in the guts and fell face down in the grass. Think of the love and the sorrow in the hearts of those left behind. Do what you can to give life and meaning to the ideals expressed in that old paper, as you go about your business, being free. If you want a copy of the text of the Declaration of Independence, send a message to office@outofthesky.com, and I will email it to you. ---- David Clark is a songwriter, writer, and speaker who tours America in a 1964 GMC 4106, trying to remind his American neighbors of the importance of Liberty so it will not continue trickling though our fingers. Contact Clark at P.O. Box 148, Cochran, GA 31014; or at his website <www.outofthesky.com>, or log on to his "Simply America Conversations" Discussion Board at http://www.simplyamerica.org *** | ||
| Jack Gregg (Jackinkc)
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Hmmm, seems kind of commercial when you ask people to write you in order to get a copy of a public document; why not just look here. My favorite part is the beginning of the second paragraph: 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, -- | ||
| David Clark (Dclark)
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Greetings. At the risk of imposing on Ian's board space, I will, in order to "avoid the appearance of evil," post the Declaration of Independence. I still welcome any public or private correspondence regarding the Declaration or what I wrote about it, with the intention of that correspondence being to build and strengthen the community of those who care about Liberty. Sincerely, David Clark Cochran, Ga. | ||
| David Clark (Dclark)
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IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 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.--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. 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. 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. 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. *** | ||
| Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj)
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Thank you David....that..pretty much says it all. | ||
| R.C.Bishop
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Thanx for taking the time, David, and the gentle reminder. I certainly did not take it as a commercial venture potential........ Seems to me a class on this very subject should be a requirement of any immigrant desiring, and granted, citizenship. Perhaps it is, but most probably not so persuasive and thought provoking. Thanx again! Have a great 4th!  RCB '64 Crown Supercoach (HWC) | ||
| Luke Bonagura (Lukeatuscoach)
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Hi Folks: I know Daid Clark, and he is a "Genuine" American. In these troubled times, I would hope that the thinking folks will continue to appreciate where we as a Nation have come from. And we must continue to appreciate the sacrifice that continues today, after 9-11-01, so that this melting pot continues to grow and prosper!!!! Sorry I have not been on the Boards for a while, but we are working short handed and there are just so many hours in the day. I just took a peak at the Boards, before leaving for a 3 day weekend. Happy and SAFE!!! Bussin' this Holiday weekend. LUKE at US COACH | ||
| Jtng Rating: N/A |
Re: "a class on this very subject should be a requirement of any immigrant desiring, and granted, citizenship." Maybe it would be better to teach this subject to our own citizens first. We could start with the politicians. | ||
| TomNPat
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Thank you,David, for the chills down the spine, the tears your letter evoked, the reminder that we owe so many so much, and the challenge to give everything we have to return this country to it's very admirable and effective roots. You've made this the best Independence Day for many years! TomNPat | ||
| RCB
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If we don't teach this beginning in KG...continuing thru at least 12th grade, then perhaps we know the reason we are in the throws of a "different America".... It used to give me "goose bumps" when the National Anthem was played....no matter where; and now, even at ball games the hymn is sung, played or honored with little thought to what "it" is all about. The "greatest generation" is on the wane and there are very few now that seem to care (GAS) about what it is all about. I served in the post "occupation" part of that war and experienced much of what it meant to be free. I thank the LORD for my citizenship, my service to the country and my freedom. Don't know my exact generational position, but do know that I live in the greatest Country in the World. Been to a lot of it, not all, and can attest to the fact we are, indeed, a blessed nation....and we need to thank those that went before us that made it possible. FWIW RCB | ||
| niles steckbauer (Niles500)
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I just spent the evening with a couple of young GI's and ex-GI's who are/were serving in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan (some home on leave - and some heading out for their 2nd and 3rd tours) - truth is, there are many of our youngest who are as patriotic and sincere as those that have gone before them - maybe you haven't met them - but they are there - search them out - treat them with respect and you may find out that they are all that you suspect they are not - I do - and I have not been disappointed - Niles | ||
| FAST FRED Rating: N/A |
The upcoming fight to get folks on the "Suprimes" that can actually read and understand the Constitution will be REAL interesting. For 60 years the court has ignored the Constitution and "found" new powers to grow government that no one found for 200 years. The Right will be arguing for the Constitution , and a series of judical appointments of folks that honor it. The Left will be arguing for "Judical Restraint" which sounds similar but actually translates to folks that will let OLD judicial ruilings stand. In other words OLD decisions with no Constitutional standing , just pulled out of the judges "feelings" , like the ability for any town council to TAKE your home if someone will promise to pay more in taxes. AS the Dems have Lost the Presidency , Lost the House ,Lost the Senate Lost 3/4 of the govennorships ,3/4 of the State Houses and chambers their demand to have controll over jusical appointments is Ludicrise. Imagine, Hoover telling Rosenfeldt that Hoover would decide who could be used to Pack the Suprime Court. I expect 3 Suprimes to be changed , which will be "extrodaniry" by Dem stds , so the unconstitutonal Appointment Filibuster will return , And there will be a HUGE fight and the Dirtiest Smears ever all summer.(Think Bork & Clarence Thomas) WE have a great Constitution , if only we can find judges to follow it , we could become a FREE country once again. My personal dream is the Right gets enough clout to take down Madison V Marburry, and limit the courts power to as it was envisoned by the Founders. 33% of gov. not 100% Works for ME! FAST FRED | ||
| rbt137@yahoo.com
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THANKS DAVE. it's tough to find AMERICANS around here. |