A Declaration of Sovereignty

Author's Note: The following was inspired and encouraged through the Survival Podcast.

It is said that those that cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it; how often of late have we boasted regarding our intellectual prowess, having harnessed the power of the atom, explored the skies and the depths of the oceans. Today, even the stars themselves are within our reach. The foundations of life are now ours to construct, and yet, we have proven unable to master the one thing that makes us worthy of such fearful power, a deficit in even a rudimentary command of something that has eluded our grasp since the very beginning: ourselves.

Not so long ago, our forefathers in a brief, shining moment, recognized that in order to secure even a tenuous hold on liberty, the inexorable progression to empower a State over men must be so restrained, so utterly bound that as long as free men were guarded against it, it would not prevail against them:

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.

Throughout the history of our nation, ever have we hailed the cause of liberty as the paragon of virtues; it graces our currency and our monuments, testaments to the ideals on which the foundation for these United States were built.

Liberty: the very word conjures the visage of a proud, radiant woman in the prime of her youth; serene and fearless, resolute and implacable.

Yet, even though the monuments stand and the coins still trade hands, Liberty has suffered since her triumph against our Fathers' oppressors; her hair is unkempt, her radiance has faded, her pride has been wounded by the excesses of a People that value the fruits of her labors rather than Liberty herself. We enjoyed peace and prosperity, but it did not endure without her blessing. Vainly, we turned to peace and prosperity at any cost, but while Liberty had given us these gifts freely, we choose instead to reap the peace of tyranny and the prosperity of war.

Liberty has rightly fled from us, and we have justly deserved it.

Having read the words of our forefathers some time ago in my youth, I grew to recognize that Liberty's blessing was one that our nation could not live without; Life would become Slavery, and the pursuit of happiness would become the pursuit of the grave. Such an idea was forever-more a revolutionary one, and without constant vigilance such princely gifts would surely fade into obscurity.

Furthermore, I have come to realize that such a time is upon us: despite the warnings of our ancestors, from the Monongahela Valley to Appomattox, from the Trail of Tears to the World Wars, the warnings have sounded thunderously on the anvil where our fetters were forged, and we have ignored them. Indeed, when not aligned with liberty's cause, even our best intentions have often given our captors the very tools to forge those chains, and we cheered with every hammer-fall. Enough have surrendered their very souls to a procession of tyrants that they have despoiled the futures of all our children, ruined the legacy of our elders, and profaned the works of our generations.

Enough.

Enough was a sufficient number to elect us to slavery, and yet, enough is also sufficient to secede from such slavery and once again seek Liberty's blessings, to turn from tyranny and its ways so that our land may be healed and our vitality restored.

Whereas, our government has become destructive to life, liberty and property in the pursuit of power, and that this has exceeded the limitations of both light and transient causes over the course of our history, but instead constitutes a long train of abuses and usurpations; resolved, that it is our right, our duty and sacred responsibility to throw off such a Government and establish a means of governance that binds itself to the protection and preservation of our inalienable rights.

I hereby withdraw my consent to be governed by such a tyranny forever-more, in whatever form it may take, wherever it may be, to work peaceably against the continuation of that tyranny and defend the Natural Rights to my life, liberty and property with any and all means necessary. I ask for nothing that that is not of my own Labor, and I recognize no sovereign over my Rights except my divine Creator; I will live free or die in the attempt.

As once our forefathers swore, now do I swear: With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, to this I pledge my Life, my Fortune, and my sacred Honor.