AN ADDENDUM TO THE PREAMBLE TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

by Brian T Lynch

As we are considering what changes we need to make in reconstruction our democratic guardrails in the future, I propose what follows.

AN ADDENDUM TO THE PREAMBLE TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

We the People, are privileged with a consciousness-of-existence so broad as to grasp the whole of creation. We therefore have a sacred obligation to preserve this privilege, and to secure it for all future generations. We are first among many creatures with consciousness-of-existence. This privileged status comes with awesome knowledge to harness and modify the natural world. We know our lives depend on the health and welfare of all living things around us and therefore accept responsibility to use our superior knowledge in service to life on Earth, including all human life. We accept our fundamental responsibility as men and women to be stewards of life on Earth and seek to live in harmony with our world. Life itself is precious and of Inestimable value to each of us born into the world.  Every child born has an equal right to be loved, nurtured, socialized, educated and cared for in childhood. And every adult retains that right to life. Therefore:

“PREAMBLE” OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all PEOPLE 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 US, 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 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. 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.