I hope this isn’t the last time I can say that.
There are a lot of horrible things going on around the world, and I care about all of them deeply even if I don’t write about them.
Sudan is on the brink of famine, China and Taiwan are on the brink of war, the Taliban have made life for Afghan women once again intolerable, Bolivia’s president plotted a coup against himself to increase his popularity, Hurricane Beryl, Ukraine, Gaza, heat domes, wildfires, and Covid—still with us.
I woke up this morning wondering why I get to live here, in the United States, comfortable and happy when so many around the world live in misery. I often think about Ursula Le Guin’s story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” The premise is there’s a utopia, but to maintain that utopia, one child must suffer. Everyone knows it, and they have to decide whether to stay or leave. She doesn’t dwell on the decision, we don’t know whether it would be better to leave or stay and try to change things. That’s for us to decide. She calls it “the dilemma of the American conscience.”
After 248 years, America faces a decision point. Do we stick with the founders who declared, in all their hypocrisy, that “all men are created equal”? Or do we revert back to a tyrannical monarchy? In declaring independence from England, America’s founders listed a set of conditions, including that:
- Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed
Their complaints against the king included that he:
- has refused his Assent to Laws
- 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
- 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
- has made Judges dependent on his Will alone
- has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us
It’s worth reading the Declaration of Independence.
Happy 248th birthday, America. May we reach 250.
Resource:
Text of the Declaration of Independence: https://declaration.fas.harvard.edu/resources/text
Elaine Burnes 
I really like this book, which is an illustrated version of the Declaration of Independence for kids: “The Declaration of Independence” with illustrations by Sam Fink.
Nice! I wonder if the NYT still prints it on the back page. I only ever see it online and really question its commitment to democracy these days.
It’s an important document. It was the very first document typed by hand into Project Gutenberg by its founder, Michael S. Hart in 1971.I hope your country makes it to 250 years and beyond too. I went through a bit of a depressed time for a bit there, after the crooks on the Supreme Court violated the constitution and made Trump a king, but I’m feeling a bit better and more optimistic now. I don’t think he’ll win. Hopefully this danger will spur people in USA to be more conscious of how fragile democracy is and how precious it is.
Very best wishes, Elaine.- Miriam
Thanks, Miriam! I did not know that about it being typed into Project Gutenberg.