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Journal Ethelred Unraed's Journal: A Declaration for the ages, and for everyone 15

Journal by Ethelred Unraed
As seen here and here. Old redheaded Tom could really write, couldn't he?

Remember, kids: even if those words were written on behalf of a bunch of uppity colonists, they were written for all of humanity:

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.

No exceptions, no ifs, ands or buts. No questions of citizenship, of status, of ethnicity, of creed or belief. (Well, OK, there is a question of gender in there, but we'll ignore that one.) This document is thus not something that just Americans should celebrate, but everyone. We Americans would also do well to dwell on the deeper meaning of those words...and the absence of those exceptions.

In this time of mounting strife between religions (and indeed between religionists and non-religionists), we also would do well to dwell on the notion that Jefferson's "Creator" was not the Christian God: he (Jefferson being a Deist) quite intentionally chose to refer to a more general Creator, as that tie which binds us all.

This text was written by an American. It was, however, written for all.

Thus I wish everyone -- Americans, Canadians, Europeans (yes, including the French...and, for that matter, the British), Chinese, Russians, Africans, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics, animists, Goths, gays, straights, D2-playing people and non-D2-playing people, and anyone else I may have forgotten* -- a very happy and peaceful Independence Day.

...

* - Except people who eat pineapple pizza. Bastards.

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A Declaration for the ages, and for everyone More

A Declaration for the ages, and for everyone

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  • Except people who eat pineapple pizza. Bastards

    Doesn't that fall under the category "pursuit of Happiness"? Even as a non-pineapple-pizza-eater, I have to accept this, even if it is a disgusting practice ;-))

  • ...and not get too chained down by the fact that the people who wrote the words owned slaves and such, and the act of correlating the society with the words has taken a couple hundred years/thousand lives.
  • Someone needs to remind congress of these words.

    They're taking great delight in pitting citizen against citizen while they continue to reap more and more powers unto themselves. Unless We The People do something to stop them, it won't matter whether you're a citizen or not - we'll all be screwed.
    • Everyone is too preoccupied with treating politics as a spectator sport to remind the government that it is beholden to us.
  • Last time I checked, English has no gender neutral pronouns. The term 'mankind' does not mean 'for all males', but rather for all 'humans'.

    Similarly, owning slaves is not incongruous, as they were not men by common definitions.


  • Well said. Happy Independence Day to you, too.

  • ...is saw palmetto and cocktail sauce (i.e., mayonnaise & ketchup) pizza. Really. [google.com] It is endemic to Buenos Aires, Argentina, only, AFAICT.

    Now that's an abomination.

    (Yes, it tastes like one, too.)

  • Happy belated Canada Day to you all, wishing you all Peace, Order, and Good Government, as they seem to be in short supply all 'round.

    Incidentally, if you folks celebrated Independence Day when it was actually signed, and not when the news had spread far enough for it to be noticed, you'd celebrate on 1 July too...

    For those of you who don't know, a combined First/Fourth long weekend causes a four-day party (with maybe some run-up and wind-down) in border towns from Maine to British Columbia... :)

    I con
  • The declaration was actually the result of a list of grievances. It was up to Lincoln to re-frame the Declaration in terms of equality, freedom vs. slavery, etc.

    If Jefferson were alive today, he'd be shocked that women could vote, never mind that we no longer have a slave class.

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