An American Declaration

This speech was written to be delivered at Independence Hall during the nationwide protests scheduled for April 19th. Tell the tyrant that Americans don’t obey kings, and that we are reclaiming all of our unalienable rights. Sign the Declaration.

We The People gather here today at this historic site to declare our independence from all kings and tyrants, past and present, and vow to never submit to one in the future.

Now, in the spirit and tradition of our forebears, we list our grievances with the current tyrant, along with our demands as a free and sovereign people.

We come here, together, in this common cause, this most American of causes. We do not agree on everything, but we are united in our opposition to dictatorship.

What unites us is far greater than what divides us.

Unlike our 18th century predecessors, we will remove today’s tyrant with nonviolent noncooperation. But like our predecessors, we shall win.

The moment has come for us to enumerate the offenses by the abusive regime whose horrific behavior requires our opposition. We speak of the tyrant and choose not to utter his name.

1. He unlawfully kidnaps innocent people without due process and ships them to foreign concentration camps to be tortured by vile despots like himself.
2. He openly defies the Supreme Court when it unanimously orders him to honor the legal and moral requirement to protect due process.
3. He holds himself above the law, evading trial or punishment for crimes including but not limited to multiple cases of felony and sexual abuse.
4. He encouraged and supported violent insurrection, an action that injured and killed police officers in the line of duty, in an attempt to overturn an election that he lost.
5. He unlawfully holds office today, in defiance of our Constitution—Amendment 14 Section 3—which clearly states that those who support or even merely provide aid or comfort to insurrectionists are ineligible for federal office.
6. He shredded the social contract and failed as a public servant, gutting our paid benefits, stealing our tax dollars and handing them to the ultra-rich in the form of tax cuts and huge government contracts, all without our consent.
7. He fired thousands of true public servants, and crippled or closed entire government departments that perform critically important tasks from administering our paid benefits to providing disaster relief to protecting our health.
8. He has seized dictatorial power and has denied us representative government just like the previous tyrant we defeated.

We could go on and the tyrant is no doubt committing more offenses as we speak, but we now turn to our demands.

1. We demand the immediate and unconditional resignation of the entire illegitimate regime.
2. We demand that free, fair and open elections—monitored by United Nations observers—be scheduled for next month.
3. We demand immediate restoration of all of our unalienable rights.
4. We demand emergency relief and restitution to help all of those wronged by the brutality of the regime.
5. We demand our right to complete transparent uncorrupted self-governance—free from any corporate influence, and with the wealthiest and the poorest getting the exact same consideration—one vote each.
6. We demand that immediate steps be taken to protect our grievously damaged biosphere, to stabilize our climate and protect ourselves and future generations from the folly of environmental destruction.

We could, of course, continue but much of this work will be carried out by us as a sovereign people, after the replacement of this regime with a legitimate elected government representing us.

We have a final message to convey, a message to share with the world. We are Americans and we have an Enlightenment-era ideology that our country has rarely lived up to, but one that we intend to champion. Freedom. Human dignity. Love of humanity. We may be citizens of a single country, but we share one planet and we intend to treat every person everywhere with respect and kindness.

We extend to you a hand of friendship, a friendship that will never be withdrawn because we are all, together, the People of Earth.

Signers