“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 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 power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness”. These words are the start of the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. July 4^th, 1776, was the date of the final approval of our Declaration of Independence from the British Empire.

In the Declaration of Independence, that is the paragraph before they list their grievances, that reads “Such has been the patient suffrage of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity with constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove, let Facts be submitted to a candid world”.  They then listed 28 grievances that they had against the British Empire.

Many of those grievances seem very relevant today. One of their grievances was “He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our Legislatures”. Another grievance was “He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power”. Another grievance was “For quartering large bodies of troops among us.” The British Empire stationed British troops to suppress the Colonies.  Isn’t that the same as Trump calling up the National Guard without the consent of the Governor of California or the Legislature of California? He has also called up the Marines to intimidate the Government and the people of California. By placing the Marines in Los Angeles, he positions troops that are superior to the Civil authorities.

Another grievance in the Declaration of Independence was “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”. Another grievance was “For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments”. Trump has ignored the checks and balances of the Constitution and has outright defied the Courts. He writes executive orders like some dictator, bypassing the duly elected people whose job it is to write the laws. Trump has not created a constitutional crisis; he has ignored the Constitution completely and with the blessing of the Republican Party, which is why the Declaration of Independence was written in the first place.

As I continue to read the grievances in the Declaration of Independence, I come across two that I think strike pretty close to home today. The first is “For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world” and “For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.” Trump and his tariffs greatly affected our trade around the world, and his Tariffs are a tax that is paid for by the consumers of this nation. Because of Trump's tariffs, traditional trading partners are looking elsewhere, which will have long-term damage to many of our businesses, both industrial and agricultural. Because of Trump’s tariffs, we are paying more for goods that we need just to survive. Trump has complained about unfair trading practices in treaties that he had negotiated. He is using tariffs as a way to punish those nations that had negotiated those agreements in good faith.

A couple of grievances that jumped out at me were “For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury,” and the other was “For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.” Due process has always been one of the greatest principles that have been cherished by the people.  Just look at what is going on with ICE and immigration. ICE is acting like the Judge and Jury and sending people to concentration camps without the due process that everyone should be entitled to. Our Founding Fathers believed that everyone should be entitled to their day in court. A Report by the Government Accountability Office, 70 U.S. citizens were deported between 2015 and 2020. Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse found that ICE wrongly identified at least 2,840 citizens as potentially eligible for removal, with at least 214 of those Americans being held in custody for a period of time. The Trump administration has set up detention centers that are like concentration camps, imprisoning them overseas in El Salvador without any having their day in court.

People today celebrate the Fourth of July without really understanding what they are celebrating. They will watch parades. They will watch fireworks. There will be cookouts and celebrations around the nation, but very few will look and read the Declaration of Independence to fully understand what they are truly celebrating. Many will not look to see the abuses that were happening, which were so bad that our Founding Fathers thought that they had to separate themselves from the British Empire, even though they were British subjects themselves. If you truly understood, I think you would be working to bring back the visions that were our Founding Fathers and stand up to the tyranny that is the Trump Administration. Like today's protestors being American citizens, the founding fathers were all British citizens whose needs were being ignored by the crown and the ruling class, much like how the Republican party today seems to benefit the 1 percent more than they do the other 99 percent. We are all supposed to be equal in the eyes of the government and the law. The Founding Fathers are considered patriots by history for doing the same thing that many of us are doing in protesting the Republicans and the Trump Administration.