The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

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, 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. —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 [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

    "... All experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

     Simply stated, this means that we put up with all of this nonsense from our own government because it's just easier to go along with it, and because we're used to being lied to and have come to expect criminal activity and "usurpations" from the officials we elect to office.

     "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."

     For grammatical purposes, there should be a comma between the words, "Object" and "evinces." There can be no question whether our government has evinced (has shown or clearly demonstrated) a design to reduce [our rights and freedoms] under absolute despotism (autocracy; absolute power or authority over another). The problem is, our government is organized and we are not. The people of this nation have become hopelessly divided by individual subscriptions to special interests and political-party fanaticism. America is no longer "One nation, under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all." Liberty and Justice have become subjective terms, at best, and mythical ideals at worst. Further, as the citizens of a single nation, we are "united" only by the geographical shores and borders of our country.

     The men who founded and created what would become The United States of America fully realized that one or two of them, standing alone for these principles, would have no realistic chance opposing and declaring their independence from the entire British Empire. They knew it would take the combined efforts of everyone who wanted to free themselves from the iron hand of oppression and tyranny wielded by King George III, and that all citizens must be united in their cause for the common good.

     The journalist in the story above will certainly be vilified, and probably jailed on a conspiracy charge. Words are no longer cheap in this country, and we are quickly approaching a point where mere words will bring the same adverse action or punishment as though the act itself were actually committed.

    Having personally experienced the overwhelming tyranny and oppression of our government, and the impenetrable armor worn by its members, I have fought the good fight. However, there comes a point where even the most seasoned and determined warrior can no longer resist his injuries, and must succumb to the weight of his own sword when standing alone against an entire army. This is the position in which I find myself now. For nearly four years I have fought and tried to expose what the law clearly defines as criminal behavior perpetrated and practiced by hopelessly corrupt government officials, only to learn that those actions are condoned and vigorously defended by those charged with enforcing those laws. Having been stonewalled at every turn, I'm just too exhausted from lack of sleep to continue defending my rights and freedoms and, by proxy, the rights and freedoms of others who are similarly situated. I've written hundreds of letters and filed as many complaints; I've paid tens of thousands of dollars to countless attorneys, whose efforts have all come to nothing and, at one point, I even managed to capture the interest of a movie producer who seemed, until recently, to take an interest in my defense. Now, even he has abandoned my cause, and I have come to the realization that I must simply accept my fate, and take my place in history as the criminal my government has sought to create. "The record will stand as written," I'm told, "and there's nothing you can do about it."

     I have no choice but to believe them.

I can think of no reason why any of you should care about this situation or about what happened to me, and most of you probably don't. You should keep in mind, however, that since I WAS unsuccessful in my efforts to pursue the lawful prosecution of government officials who openly broke state and federal laws, at some point in the future, the same thing can and probably will happen to you, a loved one or to someone you know. At that time your own fury will be unleashed, and you will be genuinely surprised to learn that few people, if any, will empathize with or be sympathetic to your plight. The mantra, "There's nothing you can do about it" will ring in your ears until you're driven to the brink of madness and, despite your best efforts, you'll eventually be forced to accept that it's true. The odds that you or someone you know will be victimized by your own government have now increased by just a little bit more than what they might have been yesterday, and they will increase again once it happens to the next person, and so on, until we come full-circle to the point at which our Founding Fathers declared, "Enough," and secured our independence as a nation.

Unfortunately, by then, most of us will be in jail or tethered by chains, and our individual rights and our collective independence will be kept far out of our reach by those we've elected and empowered to protect them.

     Jim

"I can think of no reason why any of you should care about this situation or about what happened to me, and most of you probably don't. "   It's not that we don't care, but the numbers are staggering. I mean, look at all the people who have been proven innocent by DNA testing and were in prison for many years.    http://www.innocenceproject.org/


Time*treat, did you see that Clint Eastwood movie "In the Line of Fire?" Your comment made me think of John Malkovich's character. You can't train an assassin and then expect him to retire quietly to play golf in FL.    :-)

Good point, jxp. Didn't see that one; saw 'Absolute Power', though.

@justx:

Yes, and that's my point. We KNOW there are innocent people rotting away in prison who have been wrongly convicted. There are several reasons for this. The Number One reason, according to The Innocence Project statistics you provided (thanks!), is Prosecutorial Misconduct. The problem is, it takes only a moment for a corrupt prosecutor or a crooked police officer to accuse us of committing a serious crime, and it doesn't cost them a dime out-of-pocket to put us through the entire process necessary to prove our innocence. However, it takes YEARS and TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS just to TRY to undo the damage once it's been done. I have actually spent MORE money trying to get my rights, privileges and property restored AFTER I was acquitted of any wrongdoing, despite the fact that the LAW states that these things are supposed to happen automatically, with no further effort or expense on my part.

     Trying to hold a police officer or prosecutor accountable for the crimes THEY commit has proved virtually IMPOSSIBLE, even when we have irrefutable proof, as I do. This is because if they are found to be guilty of committing those crimes, every case they've previously tried would be subject to judicial review, and their previous victims can obtain new trials based on that.

      The law states that lying to a police officer is a crime for which we are subject to immediate arrest and incarceration. Conversely, it's perfectly legal for a police officer to lie to a suspect to obtain a false confession or to obtain evidence against him. Knowing cops as I do, and knowing how their tiny, power-hungry minds work, it's really not much of a stretch for them to believe it's okay to lie ABOUT a suspect while under oath and giving testimony on the witness stand. This is what happened to me; the cops lied through their teeth when they gave their rehearsed testimony at my trial, and coerced the man I stopped and detained to lie as well. He was told, "You either say what we tell you to say or we WILL violate your probation, and YOU'LL go to jail if Grimes isn't convicted" (that's straight from the horse's mouth, and I have hard proof of that, too). I was lucky - the people who comprised my jury were smart enough to see through the gaping holes in their stories. In fact, the jury foreman actually wrote a fourteen-page complaint to the judge and requested a federal investigation of this case. I have a copy of this letter but, naturally, his official request was summarily ignored, and the investigation was never conducted.

     Now, here's the really scary part: Mere moments after my trial was over, and the jury had returned their verdicts of "Not Guilty" on both counts, the prosecutor turned to his favorite lap-dog cop and said, "Jim Grimes will NOT be the one who gets away from me!" Then, the day after my trial, one of the witnesses who testified against me received a phone call from a state police officer at 11:30 at night. The cop berated and screamed at this witness for "changing his testimony" (which he didn't) and exclaimed, "Now we have to find something ELSE to charge Grimes with!" Apparently, I have no choice but to sit and wait while they patiently engineer MORE manufactured charges against me and, as the saying goes, "There's nothing I can do about it."

     As mentioned above, I have literally written hundreds of letters to judges, congressmen, senators, various organizations and agencies, and anyone else I could think of who could help to correct this matter. The rapidity with which the state and federal governments "circled the wagons" to protect their own was both amazing and frightening. My attorney general not only refused to help me, his office elected instead to aid in my continued prosecution AFTER I was found innocent of all charges. Maybe I could understand this if I were a notorious drug dealer or had a history of criminal activity but, prior to this incident, my ENTIRE criminal record consisted of one count each of "Minor Entering a Tavern" and "Minor Consuming Alcohol," both from the same incident in 1978! My driver's record is clean as well. I haven't had a chargeable accident since 1985, I've had one speeding ticket during the same period (1998), and I've NEVER received a parking ticket in my entire life. I'm sure you can understand why they want to get me off the street, considering the major threat I present to society at large.

     Prosecutors and police officers no longer care about the truth or about justice; their only concern is with what they believe they can prove in court, even if it means falsifying evidence or committing perjury, and obtaining conviction after conviction in order to further their own careers and to get their pictures in the newspapers, accompanied with sensational stories proclaiming them to be heroes of the "Justice System."

     That's my bear to cross, to coin a phrase. The point of my rant is that, if we don't unite as a nation and put a stop to this type of nonsense, it WILL continue to get exponentially worse with each passing day. NOTHING should be easier than to free an innocent man from prison, but the process required to accomplish that is extremely complex, prohibitively expensive and unreasonably time-consuming. According to The Innocence Project, 1 out of every 31 Americans is currently incarcerated in county, state or federal prisons. In 2007, the figure was 1 in 34. Those statistics indicate that this "movement" is progressing with alarming speed, and my own experience tends to support the argument that our own government is not only responsible for this, but that they actively support and defend the effort and the means by which it is being accomplished.

     "And there's NOTHING we can do about it."

     Jim