In accordance with tradition, we are reposting the text of the Declaration of Independence here on The Cascadia Advocate for your enjoyment. The Declaration was primarily authored by our third president, Thomas Jefferson, who drew heavily on the thinking of Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke to persuasively lay out the case for the independence of the United States.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
The famous painting, Declaration of Independence, depicting the five-man drafting committee presenting their work to Congress (John Trumbull/U.S. Congress)
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 is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
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:
- For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
- For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
- For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
- For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
- For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
- For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
- For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
- For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
- For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren.
We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.
We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, 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 these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare…
… That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Thursday, July 18th, 2019
Sound Transit’s Link light rail system turns ten today: Relive the magic of opening weekend
One. Decade.
That’s how long Sound Transit’s revolutionary, high capacity Link light rail system has been in operation and carrying riders, as of today.
It was a beautiful, sunny summer morning on July 18th, 2009, when then Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and then Tukwila Mayor Jim Haggerton cut the ribbon to inaugurate service between Westlake Center and Tukwila International Boulevard at the Mount Baker Station. Flanked by elected leaders from across the region, they declared that a transportation revolution in Puget Sound had begun.
And indeed, it had.
Central Link is, fittingly, today’s featured article on the English language Wikipedia
In ten years, Link has seen over 134 million boardings. Ridership has increased from an average of just over 15,000 weekday boardings to about 77,000 now.
“In the past ten years, more and more riders in the region have learned that Link is a dependable option to arrive at their destination,” said Sound Transit Board Chair and Redmond Mayor John Marchione in a Sound Transit press release.
“I want to thank the millions of riders who have made Link so successful and the voters in our region who continue to support the expansion of the system.”
“Because of Link, riders have been spared countless hours sitting in ever-worsening traffic,” said Sound Transit CEO and former FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff, who succeeded Lynn Allen Award honoree Joni Earl as Sound Transit’s leader.
“Link’s tenth anniversary comes at a time when we are expanding the network to the North, South and East. By the time Link’s fifteenth anniversary comes around, we expect that more than twice as many riders as we have today will have discovered the advantages of fast, effective light rail.”
Here at NPI, the opening of Link light rail was a watershed event that was covered live at intervals over the course of forty-eight hours, beginning with the preview events on Friday and concluding with the end of free rides on Sunday.
This special, limited edition ORCA card commemorates ten years of Sound Transit’s Link light rail system
NPI’s Permanent Defense was founded in 2002 with the aim of providing vigorous opposition to Tim Eyman’s initiative factory and defending Sound Transit, which at the time was trying to obtain federal funding to begin construction of Central Link. Despite the narrow passage of Eyman’s I-776 that autumn, the agency was able to break ground the following year, just a few weeks after NPI was founded.
Eyman had thought that I-776 would put the kibosh on Central Link.
When it didn’t — and when the then Republican-controlled Congress and the Bush administration approved the provision of federal funds for Central Link — Eyman was left utterly shocked and confused. He had failed, and Sound Transit had won.
Under the leadership of Joni Earl, Sound Transit deftly navigated around treacherous political and legal obstacles (Eyman included) to get Link light rail back on track and ready for construction during a critical two year period stretching from 2001 into 2003. This work culminated in a groundbreaking ceremony held in the Rainier Valley in November of 2003 with Sound Transit boardmembers.
Light rail construction has been continuously underway ever since.
At the time Central Link opened, Sound Transit contractors were already at work extending light rail into SeaTac Airport and the University of Washington.
Airport Link opened in December of 2009; U-Link opened in March of 2016. Angle Lake Link followed in September of 2016. By the time those newer stations opened, construction had begun on further extensions of the Link system.
The next stations to open will be U District, Roosevelt, and Northgate, all in 2021.
Sound Transit is now almost twenty-three years old, having been established when voters approved Sound Move in 1996. After spending a few years trying to find its way, the agency settled into a groove under Joni Earl and began rolling along.
The actual buildout of Link has now been going on for twice as long as the period that Sound Transit spent trying to get its act together.
When the Northgate stations open in 2021, the Sound Move vision of 1996 will have been realized… later than anticipated, but realized nonetheless.
Congratulations to Sound Transit and to everyone who uses Link on ten years of light rail. Here’s to another decade of strong ridership growth and the liberation of commuters from gridlocked highways and streets.
# Written by Andrew Villeneuve :: 1:28 PM
Categories: Core Encyclopedia Topics, Public Planning
Tags: Permanent Defense, Transportation
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