Letters from NYC

In Memorium

We make war that we may live in peace.
- Aristotle (325 B.C.)

Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
- George Orwell

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
- Gen. George S. Patton

Deep Throat's identitiy revealed!

The Washington Post has just identified, and Woodward and Bernstein have confirmed, that W. Mark Felt, a former number-two official at the FBI, was "Deep Throat.

I wonder if Nixon is turning over or groaning? I never would have guessed it was Felt. I wonder in today's world, how long that secret would have lasted.

A Unanimous Declaration

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776, The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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. --That to secure these rights, 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 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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 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 to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

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

He has forbidden his Governors 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, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

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, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

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

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

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

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

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

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

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 & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

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

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. --And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

--John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

History Lost

When I was 14 years old I was having a hard time dealing with, and being in the middle of, two feuding divorcing parents.

My grandmother was my saving grace. I had stopped writing her letters and she decided to visit one weekend to see what was going on. While there she saw the kind of tension and bickering I was enduring and decided I was to return with her. It was the best thing she ever did for me that summer. It was the first summer ever where I truly tasted what being independent was all about.

Since she lived in the country all the commercial stores, what few they had, were very far away. Every evening she would come up with an errand for me to do after I finished my chores. As I was leaving, she would give me her blessing and tell me not to hurry back and to go out and have some adventures to tell her after dinner. My exploration of the countryside taught me how to love nature in it's unadulterated form.

On my expeditions I would bring a canvas military bag with a canteen of water, a pocket knife, a magnifying glass and a small pencil and notebook. While on my expedition I would pick deliciously ripe fruit (which was plentiful) and sit either by the river or on the side of the road to eat my bounty. Along the way I'd either sketch or write some fanciful story to share with my grandmother during our after dinner conversation, usually while she crocheted or did needle point. She didn't have a TV, she always said it stifled creativity and dulled the senses and the social graces. Now looking back and hearing how all my co-workers talk is some episode on a reality TV show, I see that she was right.

So every night after dinner she would sit and listen to some interesting story of adventure I had and would weave in along the way questions that would lure my curiosity towards some event of the town's history or some anecdote of our family history. It was during these times that I learned of Franco's repressive regime and the lengths he went to crush the democratic movement. It was during those times that she taught me about historical documents such as the Magna Carta and the bill of rights and about political systems like parliamentary democracies and Fascism. The education I received every night fueled my imagination and thirst for knowledge.

It was very hard for me to return home at the end of the summer. No amount of wishing was able to prevent that. One thing that helped ease the pain was the ring I received on my last night there. As my grandmother twisted her wedding ring on her hand she told me the story of the ring and how it had been passed down from mother to daughter for over 100 years. She also told me brief stories of how each young woman received the ring. They were incredible stories of love, faith and strength.

My grandmother received the ring shortly before she sailed out of Spain to escape fascism to live in freedom. Her mother gave it to her as a reminder that she came from a very long line of strong women, and a profound reminder that she was truly loved, no matter how far apart she was from her family. Those were the same words she whispered to me as she slipped the ring on my finger all those many years ago.

On Sunday I lost that beloved ring that had been so inspirational and comforting to me throughout the years. So I'm just sitting here being down in the dumps over having lost such a precious family ring, and with it such rich history and great love. A ring I had worn every day for the past 6 years.

Remembering

It was over 2 years ago that I first started blogging in the current incarnation. After years of coming to terms with the physical absence of my loved ones, I began to feel and come to terms with the emotional depth of the void their absence left.

In that first post I honored my friends and thus embarked on the journey of my own emotional healing.

I still miss and love them and wish they were all here, but the painful grief has greatly subsided because I've been able to write/blog it out of me. The grief has been replaced with loving memories and a gratitude for their service and their loving caring friendship.

What preoccupies me today is emotionally supporting the families who have lost loved ones in combat and teaching my son the values he needs to learn. Values such as how to be a good caring citizen and the cost and value of freedom. On this Memorial Day when service to our country is equated with negatives, I counter with positives. I counter with celebrating our democratic principles and the men/women who have fought and died to preserve our way of life and share these principles with others around the world.

On this day I will honor those who lost their lives in pursuit and hope of sharing our values with others. They will always be heroes in my book!