And well they should. Women at the time evidenced such by moving beyond their role as wives and mothers to publish letters in the public square detailing hardship, political inequity, and support for independence from
England – which, in-and-of-itself, confirmed their abilities and capabilities. The poor, native peoples, and Blacks evidenced such by joining militias and later fighting alongside one another in standing armies of professional soldiers, believing the cause and their efforts would establish a foundation for their independence, enfranchisement, and opportunity. Words
united them in a common cause through which they thought it might be possible to realize a better future, just as those same words inspired
my immigrant ancestors to come to America and can unite future generations in hope.
This is why it is necessary to focus on the stated promise of the words themselves: that each person – men and women as “Men” in the aggregate, men and women collectively as all "People" as their Creator would have it – holds within themselves the Right to claim certain rights that will lead to a more expansive and meaningful life of their choosing which will bring them happiness: Life – the right to exist physically in particular places, Liberty – the right to think both individually and independently, and the pursuit of Happiness – the right not just to pursue goods as Locke would have it but to find fulfillment as an independent character of moral standing as the ancient Greeks would have it. Is this not why people from around the world, who have been harmed or discriminated against, look to the promise set forth in those words and why people living here, in the United States, turn to such words, as our forefathers did and we and other societies do when searching for new ideas? Their promise and the solution offered has not diminished across the years, it has only expanded.
The time has come for change. Given the tyrant’s actions, which have so divided the country that civil war becomes a real possibility for the second time in our history, America and Americans have reached that point articulated in the Declaration of Independence where our form of government has become destructive of the ends articulated, and we the people now have the right “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.”
This means building off people and their potentiality in reform, as subjects capable of designing and constructing their own character and the world in which they live, not as objects to be used and abused for the benefit of others. And that requires understanding and embracing the fact that all people are possessed of dignity and deserve to live a dignified human existence – which includes being recognized and having a place at the table, being able to speak one’s mind so best to represent what is believed and what is felt, and being able to forge a healthy and happy existence among others in a particular place.
It also means building off what has been learned about systems and institutions which stifle such potential: that individuals and governments who fail to recognize and respect the right of an individual to exist, who sublimate if not stop people from thinking for themselves or who silence speech, prohibit freedom of association, and demand conformity to a particular religion or ideology or allegiance to a personality are not legitimate. One need only to look at monarchies built on the premise of blood, dictatorships built on the premise of power, fascist regimes built upon the alliances between the ruler and industrialists, republics built upon elites maintaining power by isolating the poor and uneducated, centralized authoritarian states built upon the demand that all conform to an ideology, and now the logocracy built as it is upon the solipsistic views of a madman to understand this.
Protestors now entering the streets inherently understand this. History or personal experience or formal education need not have taught them such, as their basic understanding arises from the feeling that something is terribly wrong.
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