When did we become evil?
When did we become evil? When did we become the opposite of everything that is set forth in our Declaration of Independence?
Maybe it began before we became a nation. We preached that all human beings were created equal, by both nature’s and god’s laws. All human beings have the right to live how they want to live. But at the same time we enslaved an entire group of people. We beat them, raped them, exploited them. When we finally did cement our nation with the Constitution, we denied representation and personhood to people of color and women. How can a nation with such a hypocritical beginning live up to its ideals?
I’m a firm believer in making your own choices. A parent might abuse a child, but that child still has a choice. That child can continue the abuse with their own children or stop the cycle. Our history is responsible for who we are as a people. But we still have the free will to make decisions that at least try to live up to our ideals of liberty.
For some reason, America continues to hit its children. We are currently committing almost every grievance we stated against the British. We are quartering our soldiers in a land without the people of that land’s consent. We do not punish our soldiers for brutality against these people. We have transported prisoners to Gitmo, holding them on unknown charges, giving them no trial. We have abolished their government. We have plundered their oil, ravaged their sand, burnt their towns, and destroyed the lives of their people.
A criminal once said, “When a whole nation is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is that fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.” Like the criminal, I refuse to pledge my allegiance to this nation. I pledge my allegiance to liberty, justice and equality.
Maybe it began before we became a nation. We preached that all human beings were created equal, by both nature’s and god’s laws. All human beings have the right to live how they want to live. But at the same time we enslaved an entire group of people. We beat them, raped them, exploited them. When we finally did cement our nation with the Constitution, we denied representation and personhood to people of color and women. How can a nation with such a hypocritical beginning live up to its ideals?
I’m a firm believer in making your own choices. A parent might abuse a child, but that child still has a choice. That child can continue the abuse with their own children or stop the cycle. Our history is responsible for who we are as a people. But we still have the free will to make decisions that at least try to live up to our ideals of liberty.
For some reason, America continues to hit its children. We are currently committing almost every grievance we stated against the British. We are quartering our soldiers in a land without the people of that land’s consent. We do not punish our soldiers for brutality against these people. We have transported prisoners to Gitmo, holding them on unknown charges, giving them no trial. We have abolished their government. We have plundered their oil, ravaged their sand, burnt their towns, and destroyed the lives of their people.
A criminal once said, “When a whole nation is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is that fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.” Like the criminal, I refuse to pledge my allegiance to this nation. I pledge my allegiance to liberty, justice and equality.