Difficult Moral Choices- Thanks to Rene' Marie

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 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 benefit 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 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 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.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

So, there you have it….the reason we celebrate the 4th of July. Amazingly it has nothing to do with fireworks unless political fireworks resulting from the daring dissent of those signing this declaration count.
Some of our leaders should take a look to see what it was they said in this declaration. It seems the entire document has become null and void if we look at all the rights and freedoms we’ve lost since 9-11. And are we safer today?
Today as we come to the anniversary date of this declaration the front page of one of Denver’s daily newspapers has photos of the mayor and a jazz singer, Rene’ Marie. Marie was invited to sing the national anthem at the State of Denver event by John Hickenlooper, the mayor. The black jazz singer decided it was time to change the script. After years of enduring the hypocrisy of America and the insult of that declaration above, Rene’ Marie, free black woman…proud black woman, sang the lyrics of a song called the Black National Anthem to the tune of The Star Spangled Banner. Perhaps the 52 year old singer thought of her parents having to sit in at a lunch counter at a segregated restaurant in Virginia during the 1960’s civil rights movement as she changed course and sang the lyrics of Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing:

Lift ev'ry voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring.
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise,
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might,
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee,
Shadowed beneath thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.

On the evening after Marie sang this song to the city council and mayor of Denver, Colorado she told a news reporter she wanted to express how she felt as a black woman growing up in this country.
The fall out of her actions has taken on typical American hyperbole. A former cop who is now a city councilman said the national anthem is the only thing that should have been sang. “Period. …This isn’t a NAACP convention.”
There’s a full front page and two full pages on page 4-5 about this egregious action of the jazz singer who dared. On page 42 there’s a story about the possibility of the FBI having powers to investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue but finding any news about them is nearly impossible in the same newspaper excoriating Ms. Marie for having the gall to make a statement about the true condition of our city and our nation.
Nationwide and locally attack jocks of talk radio speak racist code as they condemn Marie for being unpatriotic and worse. Hate mail pours in through emails all across the nation in this country that claims to hold the truths of all men (and women?) being created equal and endowed with the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Rene Marie begs to differ…no she doesn’t beg to differ….she took the opportunity to remind the fat cats of political office they were failing her and people like her. You know, people with different skin pigmentation. People impoverished and without power. People homeless and jobless.
The racists and cowards in office want to portray Rene as “dishonest” and “deceitful”. They say she’s “disrespectful”, part of a “cult of multiculturalism and anti-Americanism..” and “selfish”. The black councilman who heads the council disavowed her actions quicker than Obama ran Reverend Wright over with his campaign bus. No doubt there will be a reaction from Obama forthcoming. The white liberal mayor took hours to come up with a coherent statement condemning Ms. Marie. Then he held a press conference the next day to further clarify his thinking which his staff helped him develop, without much doubt.
What was it Phil Ochs said about liberals in his song “I’m A Liberal”? Something to the effect liberals talk a great story but bail quicker than the Iraqi army did at the start of both invasions by the American military whenever the liberal is personally challenged to stand up for an unpopular cause. Michael Hedges says in his book “Losing Moses on the Freeway: The Ten Commandments in America” that making the moral choice is seldom rewarded. The Democratically controlled Congress is clear evidence of that statement. They have failed time and again to make a moral choice and accepted the rewards offered not to do so.
I certainly don’t speak for Rene’ Marie. She’s very capable of doing that for herself. I do speak in support of her bravery to challenge a system that has made empty promises to men and women who are black. She is a voice of clarity and conscience willing to call the bastards out for their constant lies to marginalized people. She doesn’t say this. I do.
I’m an old white male who grew up in the days before segregation ended in this nation. If it ever truly did…we just found other ways to accomplish the vile practice. I fought in a war for this nation and came to realize the words of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Corky Gonzales had great merit in “white America”. Vietnam was a reprehensible sham that killed 3 million Vietnamese and 58,000 plus Americans. It scarred many of us for life both physically and mentally.
I returned home in 1969 after spending the entire year of 1968 in combat with the Marines. I was wounded and asked to kill other humans. I followed orders and did as I was asked. I quit doing so once I returned home. I realized I had been duped in my attempts to be a patriotic American. I realized patriotism isn’t always an easy path to follow. True patriotism means challenging authority of the government when it violates the rights of its citizens. It means speaking out and being unpopular when the moral choice isn’t made by elected officials. I think Rene’ Marie did a difficult act of patriotism on July 2, 2008 when she chose not to honor the rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air. I would be proud as a combat veteran to stand by her side in support of what she did.
I am without a doubt considered a radical in my thinking. I don’t like the national anthem because it conjures up the images of war and violence. I find shame in the American flag because it symbolizes blood and violence of too many unnecessary wars perpetrated for honorable causes that were merely inducements to get young people to fall for the lies of the old men in power.
I love my country. I love the people of this nation. In good conscience, however, I cannot and will not tolerate the lies and corruption of a government that has usurped the very tenets of the Declaration and the Constitution. People tell me freedom isn’t free to justify the wars of the rich and elite that sacrifice the children of poor and middle class Americans. I say they are right that freedom isn’t free. It means being ever vigilant to prevent our government of the people from stealing liberty from the people. It means making difficult choices such as Rene’ Marie made on the second day of July in the year 2008.
I admittedly hate the July 4th holiday because it doesn’t honor what American ideals should be about. It honors explosions and bombs bursting in air. It became a day of over indulgence and consumption. It became a commercial rather than an ideal. Like many combat veterans I hate the fireworks because they only remind me of the real explosions of war. This year, however, I find joy in the actions of a woman willing to make an unpopular but patriotic choice. Thank you Rene’ Marie.