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Post Info TOPIC: Let Freedom Ring!
Jameela Lares

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Let Freedom Ring!
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Hello from bitterly cold Philadelphia, where I'm attending the Modern Language Associate conference.  And hello particularly to our poster named Let Freedom Ring. 


Yesterday I stood in line to see the one thing I had to see beyond the conference--the Liberty Bell.  It was quite a moving experience. 


I didn't know much about the history of the Liberty Bell, but there was a self-guided tour (and friendly guards).  The bell has always been about freedom.  It was originally the Philadelphia state house (?) bell, commissioned to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of Penn's charter guaranteeing representative government and religious freedom (the first such charter).  It was thus a "jubilee" bell, reflected in its citation of Leviticus 25:10, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof."  It didn't become the "Liberty Bell," however, until the 1830s, when it was adopted by the Abolitionist movement--some inhabitants of the land were not enjoying liberty.  Thus, Martin Luther King Jr's "Let Freedom Ring" speech is absolutely authenticated by history.  The suffragette movement also used the bell as a potent symbol.


The park ranger at the bell itself was from Mobile, Alabama, a descendent of slaves.  He said that they tracked down the slaveholding family and invited the descendents to their first family reunion.  I told him how proud I was over the name of our administration building, and also about the yearly candlelight vigil during black history month.  He asked me for further information, which I'll be surfing for to send along to him.


I hadn't realized how moving actually seeing the Bell would be.  I've heard of it all my life, but it was always somewhere else.  I hadn't realized, either, what a target it would make for terrorists looking for something symbolic to attack.  Security was quite tight.


While in the tour, I reread the Declaration of Independence.  There are some quite relevant entries in the reasons for the Declaration, such as not hiring cronies and not keeping the judges in one's own pay.  I invite anyone with more time to post the Declaration here with the relevant items bolded.


Let Freedom Ring!


Jameela Lares



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Angeline

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The beginning of the Declaration is most powerful and relevant to our situation at USM (if not the current situation in Mississippi and the U.S. more generally):


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.



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The Purple Healing Pill

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The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies

 


The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
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 [George III] 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 harass 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 and 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 British 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 the 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



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Angeline

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And Jefferson wrote this passage just because of SFT and despots like him in human history:


" . . . 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 . . . "



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Black Cat

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Don't forget the passages of the Constitution and Amendments that are relevant to the Thames dictatorship:


1st Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.


4th Amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.


Article 6, clause 2:  This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.



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foot soldier

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Thanks for that, Jameela and co. Obviously Shelby needs a good class in American history (another of my regular plugs for CoAL). Ever hear the NPR staff's reading of the Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July? I always find it very moving, both due to the content, and to the variety of voices unified in a single task. Maybe when you get back from MLA there should be a similar reading on the steps of the dome.

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educator

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The first portion of the 14th Admendment is near and dear to my heart.

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educator

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And I'll add it!!     


Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.


 



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Let Freedom Ring

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quote:

Originally posted by: Jameela Lares

"Hello from bitterly cold Philadelphia, where I'm attending the Modern Language Associate conference.  And hello particularly to our poster named Let Freedom Ring.  Yesterday I stood in line to see the one thing I had to see beyond the conference--the Liberty Bell.  It was quite a moving experience.......Let Freedom Ring! Jameela Lares"


Hello to you too, Jameela, and thank you for such a moving and thought provoking post about the Liberty Bell.  Reading your post, and those of the other posters to this thread, serves as a reminder of how lucky we are that the founders of our country had such wonderful values.  It is also a very appropriate discussion for our situation as well.....if only USM's "leader" applied such values in his efforts at leadership.....


NO QUARTER!



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