Freedomedia

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Today is July 4th, a day we commemorate those who came before us who had the bravery and tenacity to declare their independence from an unjust government that did not represent their values or beliefs.

As you probably all know by now, George Bush recently commuted Lewis Libby’s 30 month sentence after Libby was found guilty of obstruction of justice and denied bail pending his appeal. I don’t know how any of you feel, but I happen to think that Bush has reached a new low in his presidency and that this brazen act further cements the fact that he considers himself and his associates above the law.

We all knew from the start that Libby was nothing more than a fall guy; it’s obvious that Dick Cheney is behind the leak of Valerie Plame’s identity. But in payment for Libby keeping quiet, Bush has done the unspeakable and pardoned his partner in crime. This is only the fourth time that the president has commuted a sentence in addition to the 14 pardons he’s granted; compare this to Richard Nixon who pardoned 863 people and commuted 60 sentences. George Bush has publicly stated that he is opposed to government interfering with criminal sentencing and this is clearly a case of George Bush’s rewarding Libby for covering Dick Cheney and the Bush administration.

Three years ago a few of us put forward a ballot measure in the city of San Francisco inspired by the Declaration of Independence which would establish the United Neighborhoods of San Francisco. At the time it felt like the choice between Kerry and Bush was no choice at all, but today the situation is even more bleak.

Today is Independence Day. Take a look at the original Declaration of Independence, and think about how well the United States government represents your own views and perspectives. After the break, read San Francisco’s declaration from 2004.

Declaration of Independence

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 their humanity entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all people are equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among people, 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 has shown that people 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 the people of this city; and such is now the necessity which constrains us to alter our former systems of government. The history of the past and present administrations of the United States of America is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over the people of this city, these states, and the world. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

Amongst these many general abuses it has suborned and denied the sovereign will of the citizens of the City of San Francisco in five critical ways:

1. Against our firm resolve to not persecute its wars of aggression, it has utilized our taxes for these purposes, recruited the youth of our city to fight in its armies, moved war materials through our port, contaminated our land, and has failed in its acknowledged duty to recover the damages done.
2. Against our decision and progressive implementation of a model system for administering medical marijuana, a plant recognized in providing safe and effective relief from a variety of conditions, and in opposition to the mutual wishes of physicians and patients, it has raided, arrested, and prosecuted individuals and groups acting in full compliance with state and local law.
3. It has chosen to stand against the general desires of the people of San Francisco and the executive action of its Mayor in attempting to limit marriage and its multitude of benefits to heterosexuals to the degree of consideration and proposal of a Constitutional Amendment.
4. In violation of its own Constitution, it has instituted the PATRIOT Act, trampling on the basic rights of due process and privacy, further weakening the already limited freedoms of speech, inquiry, association, and legal representation. Without warrant or witness, crimes against the common citizen can be pursued under the guise of National Security, claiming the name of justice but without evidence of cause. We, the people of San Francisco, have repudiated this act and its administration through the resolution of the Board of Supervisors and the direct vote of the people, instructing non-compliance by city civil servants who are directed to refer PATRIOT act requests to the Board of Supervisors for decision, thereby placing our citizens in grave conflict between performance of just and lawful actions and the illegal actions of a more powerful state which assumes sovereignty over us.
5. As a city that considers itself a member of the international community and supports both universal health care and the International Declaration of Human Rights, the disregard of the United States of America for the welfare of its own people stands in strong contradiction to both our own principles of a just society and to international understandings we share with the remainder of the world.

We, therefore, as representatives of the United Neighborhoods of San Francisco, in general congress assembled, appealing to the peoples of the world and their communities for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of this city, solemnly publish and declare: that these United Neighborhoods are, and of right ought to be, a free and independent city; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the US corporate crown; and that all political connection between them and the United States of America, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as a free and independent city, these United Neighborhoods have full power to levy peace, conclude war, 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 Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
We instruct the Board of Supervisors of the city and county of San Francisco and all other appropriate legal representatives of this city, to amend the City Charter in all such ways as are required in order to establish and clarify the lawful standing of the United Neighborhood of San Francisco as a sovereign nation per this Declaration and to inform the government of the United States of America of our separate and sovereign status in a timely and appropriate manner.