likethebeer

It's a lazy, weed-pulling day, but that's ok. Although, I started off this morning listening to the Declaration of Independence read on NPR, as is my wont, & that's always good.

There's a FLLW graphic of 4th of July flags which I suppose I could get as an icon, but for only one day a year?... Well, I've got 233 userpics I can use, & I've only got 30-something, so might as well.
It's my icon now on this post.

And here's a link to the full image:
http://chicagogeek.tumblr.com/post/54601989664/july-fourth-by-frank-lloyd-wright-original

He'd originally done it in 1927, trying to make money by coming up with 12 covers for Liberty magazine. The covers weren't published for Liberty but were used in various places (& now are t-shirts, puzzles, mugs, glasses, playing cards, cocktail napkins, etc.).

Transcript below the cut.

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There's some really nice writing in this thing.

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.

And, boy, did those guys have a long list of grievances. Or, Grievances (which I'm not going to reprint here. The text is available from many places. I got it from ushistory.org ). Although at the end of list of grievances comes the line, "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." I used that during anti-war demonstrations in 2003.

I like this line, too. It comes right before everyone's signature: "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." Sacred Honor! Makes ya stand a little straighter.