Independence, fear, and the King Georges of Our History

By Peter Fredson

This week I took a trip with a busload of other veterans to visit the World War II monument in Washington. While there I saw the paranoid fear and the tense security in our Capitol city. Our driver was told he could not pass in front of either the White House or the Capitol. I wondered if our people were cowards when the British King George held sway over our destiny.

I harkened back to our Declaration of Independence, got a copy to peruse, and was astonished at the many similarities of the abuses on our citizens therein detailed. Let me cite a few, changing a few words to bring them into modern times:

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors (Senators) 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…..

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws of Naturalization of Foreigners……..

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….

He has erected a multitude of New Office, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept (among the Iraqis) Standing Armies without the consent of their legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. (The Military-Industrial Corporation.)

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constititution (Gonzales, Ashcroft, torture, spying, wiretaps, signing, etc.)

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among (Iraqis).

For protecting them (Blackhawk, Soldiers, himself and Cheney)…from punishment for any Murders which they should commit….

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury.

For transporting people beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.

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

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.

In every stage of these Oppresions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury (and smirks). A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free peoples.

Yes, I see many similarities, abuses, offenses .. none of which were addressed by remedies by either monarch. And I was disturbed by the fortress atmosphere in our “free” nation. We do not have a worthy president or vice-president, but a pair of war-mongering tyrants after domination and big bucks.