I'm Sorry..........
This past weekend I watched National Treasure. It’s a good movie. I had seen it before, when it first came out. I enjoyed it then too. But then I watched it and enjoyed it, as a movie. This time was different. This time as I watched it, it piqued my interest in the actual Declaration of Independence. It was the words that Nicolas Cage (in character) read from the Declaration of Independence that grabbed me:
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security."
Another character asked what that meant. The response?
“If there's something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.”
I realized that I had never really read our Declaration of Independence, (and actually understood it) so this movie caused me to look it up, read it, and reread it until I actually understood what this country was founded on. I spent an entire day online actually, reading all sorts of things about our country’s birth. And wondering what in the hell was wrong with us today. I am ashamed of myself. I’m embarrassed of what this country has become. We have it so easy. We have electricity, cars, refrigeration, telephones, internet, supermarkets, pre-packaged, and even pre-cooked food. For all our problems, we are the richest nation in the world. Yet we allow one President to lie while under oath. That’s called perjury. He was impeached for it. Did we care? No. Now we have a President who clearly lied to involve us in a war that there is no hope of winning. Do we care? No. What has happened to Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government. It’s a scary thought isn’t it? That something might actually be expected of you. It scares me. It makes me feel like a coward. Like I now know something I didn’t know before and I need to do something about it, but what? What do I do? Obviously our government had become destructive, not to mention oblivious to the people it is governing. But still, we as a people, do nothing.
I am not pointing fingers.
I am not blaming anyone. Because I am guilty.
I know our President is wrong; I do nothing.
I know this war is wrong; I do nothing.
I know our congress is corrupt; I do nothing.
I know our voting method is corrupt; I do nothing.
I know our justice system is no more just than I am and still I do nothing. Nothing at all. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if anything can be done. I just feel small and insignificant when I look at what those first Americans faced, and overcame.
And I felt the need to confess.