If They Started A Revolution In 1776, What About Now?

 (C) Carlos Latuff

From the Ramparts

Junious Ricardo Stanton

jrswriter@comcast.net

If They Started A Revolution In 1776, What About Now?

If my recollection of the myths, lies and history I was taught in school hold up, the reason the US colonists got together to declare their independence from Britain was because the King of England supposedly trampled on their rights, abused his authority and engaged in egregious disrespect of their dignity. In their Declaration of Independence they listed a long train of allegations, offences and conditions which brought them to the breaking point. In these turbulent times it would behoove us to reread this document and ask ourselves, does it have relevance today? Of course people of African ascent know that all the lofty verbiage penned by Thomas Jefferson about “All men being created equal and endowed by their creator with unalienable rights among which are, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” did not apply to our ancestors held in brutal bondage and stultifying subjugation by the colonists demanding freedom from the King of England!!

Nevertheless the words and conditions that brought on the Revolutionary War of 1776 have an eerie similarity to what the current government is or isn’t doing to/for us today! Jefferson wrote, “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... For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences: ... 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... 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.” IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America

If a slave holding pedophile like Thomas Jefferson could pen such words and be moved to go to war against the sovereign ruler of Britain, what will it take for the people of the US today to challenge the government that is doing almost to a word the same things to us that motivated Jefferson, Hancock and their cabal to take up arms against the oppression of the English crown? Only a fool fails to realize we are living in a new era of taxation without representation. It is clear the bribe takers and crooks in Washington D.C. are neither listening to nor acting on the wishes of their supposed constituents, we the people, us. It is clear that he who pays the fiddler calls the tune in Washington D.C. most state capital and city halls in this country. If our representative felt beholden to us, they would never have voted to invade Afghanistan, Iraq or to bailout the Wall Street banks, Hedge Funds and Insurance Companies that created the financial meltdown in the first place. The majority of Americans were overwhelmingly opposed to all of these actions.

They never would have agreed to approve spying on all of us and passed retroactive laws that allowed George W. Bu$h to escape prosecution for violating the law even prior to 9-11!! If your representative was listening to you, would he or she have passed the bogus Health Care Reform Bill that is nothing more than a gift to the insurance companies that bribed them during the election campaign. Most people wanted more debate on the issues of “single payer” and the “all in” options. But no, the congress critters listened to the lobbyists and insurance companies and voted their way. If the crooks, deviants and liars in Washington weren’t so busy feathering their own nests maybe they would be gutting the military budget, closing overseas US military bases and bringing the troops home so they won’t have to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits and they’d would have the needed money to fix our roads, bridges, schools and infrastructure. But no, they’re too busy gyrating to the beat of the warmongers and military industrial complex to think about us or doing what’s right.

Taxation without representation; wasn’t that one of the war cries in 1776? If it was a cause to rumble then, why not now? Why are we sitting back allowing the politicians to piss on us, tell us its raining and we meekly fall for their lame okey-doke? While Obama poses for phot-ops, mouths phony tough talk about Wall Street and BP, the beat goes on. For all his tough talk has the economy improved, has BP stopped the leak, did the Wall Street CEOs give their bonuses back? No! In a show of utter disrespect for their lap dogs and cronies in the White House and Congress, BP and the other oil giants are raking in record profits and the Wall Street CEOs continue making obscene salaries and bonuses! Meanwhile Joe and Jane Sixpack are losing their jobs, their homes, sleeping in tents and cars and Pookie and Shaneqwa are back home with Big Mama, in a shelter or find themselves homeless eating out of trash cans. This is the state of modern USA life. But when you stop to think about it isn't this situation a cause for revolution too?

Where is the concern? Where is the righteous indignation needed to make a change. It should be painfully obvious by now that Barak Obama is nothing more than an empty suit. We fell for the super slick PR campaign and media flim-flam bout him. But despite all his talk about change it should be crystal clear Obama aint it and he aint gonna be it. If ever there was a time for the people to rise up and take the government to task for the rampant corruption and malfeasance metastasizing throughout the system it’s now. But folks seem to be too distracted by sports, American Idol, the latest celebrity scandal and gossip to do anything about the deteriorating conditions. At least, to their credit, the people in Europe are acting up and taking to the streets. All we have here is the tea baggers and the ruling elites are scared to death of them; so much so, they’ve cunningly highjacked what started out as a grass roots tax protest movement and redirected it into the far right of the Republican Party. The Tea Party movement will end up fizzling out or getting totally co-opted by the system.

When will we learn, when will we wake up? Things won’t change on their own. Career politicians have no incentive to change. Why should they, they're getting paid handsomely over and under the table to maintain the status quo. The solution is not out there waiting for someone else to make it happen. If it is to be it is up to me/us. Like Harold Mevin and the Bluenotes sang in the ‘70's, “The world won’t get no better if we just let it be. The world won’t get no better we got to change it girl just you and me...”

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