Dear Voter,
You are about to embark on a history making journey that no one has ever undertaken before. You have the opportunity to perform good work the likes of which have not been seen since our Founders signed the Declaration of Independence.
I wish that it was an overstatement to say that. Sadly, it is not.
Everyone knows the words,
“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political ties that bind it to another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and 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."
These valiant, and stalwart men, who risked everything to take this political move were left with a vastly inferior, underpaid, under-equipped, and underfed army to protect them, an army led by a man who’s main military experience had been in surrendering frontier forts and losing frontier battles during the last phase of the French and Indian Wars. It so happened, he was the only man who came to the interview dressed in his uniform, and at over six feet in height, George Washington made a commanding figure. He got the job.
These men did not stop with the words above, however. The began to list the complaints they held against their king, George III of England, specifically identifying him.
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 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 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 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 imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
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 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.
The Declaration of Independence is our national founding document. It lays out the case for the unilateral declaration of separation from Great Britain.
We have not included all the items on the list, but you can grab a copy of the Declaration of Independence almost anywhere, from an online search to the back of the Dictionary on your bookshelf.
Dear Voters of Pennsylvania, you have an opportunity to make history here, because for the first time in almost two and a half centuries, you have the opportunity to make your vote count in the process of stopping such abuses of government in our Commonwealth.
Until now, you have had little to no say in what your two major parties have offered up as party platforms, and party candidates. Unless you contribute enough money to your political party, and take an active role locally, you have no say at all. Your voice is outbid, not by the loudest bidder, but by the highest bidder. Year in and year out, your parties have sent the richest adherents to the party committees, and the rising stars of the party line. When your candidates raise funds, they turn to the quick fix, political contributions made at dinner-fundraisers, where the well-heeled get to press their interests on the candidates in return for that political fuel: cash. When that isn’t enough to feed the TV ad machines, they turn to the monied interests, the lobby groups, and in Pennsylvania, this almost always means developers, and that includes the billions (literally) of dollars pumped into the state political machines of both parties by the gambling industry. It has not always been so. It used to be far less, and it used to be only developers and their investors, banks and foundations that would lobby with heavy money. That was until gambling was legalized and the tens of millions suddenly became tens of billions in almost untraceable financial influence.
You as an individual are not on an equal footing with those who seek to influence Pennsylvania politics. You do not have the financial wherewithal to compete on an equal footing with them. This is what your two political parties have done to you.
If you finally get the point that your voice has no weight in the political climate of Pennsylvania, you are almost correct.
This year, starting in the May Primary, you will have the unique opportunity to begin the correction of this sad state of affairs. It calls for great risk. It calls for placing your faith in a few radicals, much the same as the colonists of the thirteen colonies did in their Continental Congress in 1775 and again in 1776. It was an extraordinary thing those men did. They wrote this document (that is, Thomas Jefferson wrote the document and they all approved it), and then they publicly signed their names. As Benjamin Franklin then noted, “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang.”
In their list of grievances, some few of which are listed above, one can perceive a number of direct or indirect correlations to the actions of the Governor, the State Supreme Court, and the General Assembly over the past few years, actions that have begun to rob you of your civil rights (the increasing number of occurrences of the superseding of state law over local laws), the abridgement of the state constitution in passing new legislation (Act 71 of 2004, and the Pay Raise of 2005, both passed in the dead of night, without the required 3 days of public comment in each house, and with both starting as bills of another topic being changed into the stealth legislation that was passed…both evolutions contrary to the Pennsylvania Constitution.), and the total breakdown of the State judiciary, in particular the Supreme Court and its Chief Justice who was complicit in the passage of at least the Pay Raise, even to promising that no legal challenge would be allowed.
Such is the nature of the tyranny since Governor Rendell took office. He signed both unconstitutional acts into law. He promised to veto any attempt to repeal Act 71 (the Gambling Bill), even though it was passed unconstitutionally.
The list of grievances above all refer to “He”, being King George III. In our case, we can substitute a number of figures from State Government and from without, all complicit in the seizure of your sovereign rights to have a say in your own government. Those would include, the Governor, the Judges, the General Assembly, and of course, the great lobbying industry of the developers, and investors particularly the gambling industry – the latter paying the former in exchange for enabling and easing the introduction of gambling.
Whether you support gambling or not is not the issue. It is the manner of how it, and the pay raise were done. It was the abridgement of your rights in the process of constitutional government that brings you to a moment in history in which you can finally make a difference.
It is easy. Get out and vote. Take others to the polls so they too can vote. Do not vote for any incumbents. Urge those you take to the polls to vote the same way. Break the cycle of dependency on your party machines, and return power back into your hands, not those of the rich.
Your only party loyalty during the May and November elections of 2006 must be “New”. They may be Democrat, Republican, Independent, Green, Constitutional, Libertarian or whatever, just do not pull the party lever. Make yourself aware of who the incumbents are, then vote for someone else.
We strongly recommend to take a look at Operation Clean Sweep and get a list of their candidates, who have all taken a pledge to clean up state government.
It starts with you taking enough interest in your own future to care, and then vote. If you do not, you have surrendered to those who have the money, and have told them you are not worthy to determine your own fate, nor to exercise your rights of personal sovereignty.
That’s an ugly thing to allow yourself to do. Even worse, it is an ugly thing to do to your fellow voters.
Vote! Elect non-incumbents, no matter how much you like and think you can trust your current representatives and Senators, do not vote for them. Cast them out of the General Assembly and let some people with real integrity in there to try and refashion government the way it is supposed to run: in service to you, and not to itself.
Carpe Diem! Seize the day! Make history!
THE CENTRIST
“Kick the hubris out of Harrisburg!” -- THE CENTRIST
"It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs." -- Albert Einstein
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