People following NPR's Twitter feed were shocked by their tweets posted on July 4. It seemed many Trump supporters believed the public radio station was inciting some form of insurrection.
NPR’s tweets were actually the Declaration of Independence in 140-character snippets. It’s amazing that those who purport to be more American in their values than most are so unfamiliar with this country’s formative documents. But there is another, critical take on this that many may not have considered.
This NPR mix up should open the door to look at all the different forms of insurrections around the world—and at home—in a different context. The Declaration of Independence is not a peace treaty. It is a document of war.
The following snippets are probative.
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. ...
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. ...
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.
The Declaration of Indepence represents the writing of a group of men who decided to break off from another country. It is tantamount to Texas declaring independence from the United States.
The founding fathers had a list of grievances with their government, and for all practical purposes, they not only overthrew it, but they also took the governed land. They believed that they were so aggrieved that it was a God-given requirement to break away at all costs, with warfare if necessary.
Ironically, there are many subgroups in the United States both past and present that could present a case of being more aggrieved by their government than the wealthy colonists who signed the Declaration of Independence: Native Americans, blacks, Latinos, the white permanent underclass in Appalachia. But they didn't.
Native Americans have not revolted against the constant infringement on their lands as treaties are broken. Black Americans have not revolted for not having reaped the spoils of their free labor and constant mistreatment. Latinos have not led an uprising against the disregard of the Guadalupe Hidalgo treaty and the abuse of their labor. The white Appalachians have not protested for not partaking in the spoils from the land they mined.
In a long-suffering manner, they avoided war and massive bloodshed for generations, even as they continue to keep the pressure on the ever-existing plutocracy.
There are millions of aggrieved people and dozens uprisings occurring on virtually every continent in the world. Some have chosen the path of our founding fathers, and some have chosen the same path as some of the still-aggrieved Americans. Some have come to the conclusion that the aggrieved acquiescing to slow, peaceful change is not optimal. To some, it’s downright futile. America is lucky so far that the growing number of the aggrieved segments of its society still hold hope. But that hope is running thin and it is in the interest of those in power to note that while we don't know where the tipping point is, it is there.
Remember, yesterday’s terrorists may today be seen as revolutionaries. Meanwhile many—if not all—of today's revolutionaries are referred to as terrorists.