Lest we forget today just who and what we are...

[bktheirregular]

"...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 seem to them most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will indicate that Governments long established should not 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...."

Excerpt from The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, in Congress, July 4, 1776.

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Preamble

[takaal.livejournal.com]

We, the people of the United States, in order to for a more perfect union, establish justice and insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, ensure the general welfare and secure the blessings of Liberty for ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

(My personal favorite run-on sentence EVER. And, due to my age, my entire Con Law class could recite it in unison... and in rhythm, as we'd grown up on "Schoolhouse Rock" each Saturday morning.)