Declaration of Occupation

I want to offer to the community and the world a little something that, with the help of my dear friend Thomas Jefferson, I put together in the last few days. Read it below and/or click on the PDF attachment at the bottom to download a copy.

Declaration of Occupation

When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for the People to dissolve the Political Processes which have utterly failed them, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the 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 their Occupation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Humans are created equal, that they are endowed by Nature 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 equally, 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 occupy the Government, laying a new Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect the Wellbeing and Happiness of the community as a whole. 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 Oligarchy, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to occupy such a Government, and to provide rational and fair Implementation of just laws for their Wellbeing. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Citizens; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the recent and present Presidents, Congresses and their Corporate Sponsors is a History of repeated legal Crimes and Usurpations, all having in direct object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these Citizens and the Planet itself. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

They have refused their Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

They have squelched and stifled our ability to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless compromised to such an extent that they be virtually ineffective; and being so compromised, ultimately serve only the ends of those Corporate Sponsors.

They have called together Lobbying and behind the scenes Dealmaking at places untimely, and commonly in secret for the sole purpose of disenfranchising the People and forcing them into compliance with their measures.

They have erected a multitude of New Bureaucracies, and sent hither swarms of Legalese to harass our people and eat out their substance.

They have kept among us, in times of peace, Police Forces trained as and functioning as Standing Armies.

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

They have acted to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution; giving their Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops and police among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders or Brutalities which they should commit on the citizens:
For co-opting our Natural and Fair Trade with all parts of the world:
For unfairly imposing little or no Taxes on the 1%, while the 99% shoulder the burden:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For allowing Governors to suspend Legislatures in their states, and declare unelected persons or Corporations invested with power to legislate for us.

They have plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, removed our mountain tops, sullied our air, polluted our lakes and streams, and destroyed the quality of life of our people.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions and recently our peaceful Occupations have been answered only by repeated injury. A President, a Congress and their Corporate Sponsors, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, are unfit to rule as such over a free people.

We, therefore, as citizens, being the true Representatives of the United States of America, in Occupations and General Assemblies and among the people at large, 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 this Land, solemnly publish and declare, that the 99% are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent of the Plutocratic Rule of Corporate Influence, that we are Absolved from all Allegiance to the Acceptance of Illegitimate Laws, and that all political connection between us and those of the 1% who choose to Control us, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent Citizens, we have full Power to wage Protests, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Truly Free and Independent Citizens may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of the Laws Of Nature, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.