“Where common memory is lacking, where people do not share in the same past, there can be no real community, where community is to be formed, common memory must be created.” -Georges Erasmus
i had to hide in the closet last night & on the evening of july 4th - folks were aiming explosives at our house & it was shaking all night & has been for weeks now... we have to put our air filter on in the evenings cause our house fills up with smoke due to the fireworks
the usa feels like a multi car pile up due to a dense fog of our own creation...
i know our country is not the only one going through things - it feels weird that people here are setting off explosives that they paid for - for entertainment - meanwhile wars are raging all over the globe
this track is my attempt to process our history and present moment in all it's complexity and paradoxes in real time...
‹ lyrics
Declaration of Independence: A Transcription In Congress, July 4, 1776
"...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..."
(all people)
"... 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..."
(i do not consent)
"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,"
(i do not consent)
"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."
(i do not feel safe)
"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"
(the president is not a king)
"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 refused his Assent to Laws,the most wholesome and necessary for the public good."
(the president is not above the law)
"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..."
(gerrymandering is not representation)
"...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 harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without... Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent... 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..."
(is this what you want?)
...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..."
HE HAS EXCITED DOMESTIC INSURRECTIONS AMONG US!!!
what if we...
what if we endeavor to bring healing?
what if we endeavored to acknowledge the destruction we created
to the people who's land we live on?
what if we acknowledged the damage?
the inhumanity
what if we attempted to repair?
and build something new
