corrente

It dawned on me when I was writing the partial list of grievances in a different post that there was a fine model for listing grievances, and it might be time to do a little comparison:

… The history of the present King… is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny... 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.

Gun control. Universal health care. Help me out here, readers.

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.

Redistricting.

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.

DeLay forcing the Texas Dems to flee to New Mexico?

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

I think this one is still in the pipeline except for rule by decree.

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.

Again, in the works, except for the “exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within” part.

I skipped over a few here…

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

Military-industrial complex. Halliburton.

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.

That one’s more for the Iraqis. Skipped a few more…

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.

Guantanamo. Torture. War on Drugs. Skipped a few more…

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.

Congressional rule changes in ethics and procedures. More skipping…

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

You’re either with us or against us. Then a couple more for the Iraqis:

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.

Skipped the bit about “merciless Indian savages.” Could insert “terrorists”? Then:

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….

And so, if we were to meet and draft a declaration that ended as above, what would our list of grievances be in 2005? I suspect it would be longer that theirs in 1776. Readers? Grievances? I can take all of the grievances and put them in a new post, a la the Declaration... I'm sure it's been done, but what the hell?