The Declaration of Independence July 4th, 1776, [also a 2025 addendum]

The American Founding Fathers that structured the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution would be proud that we have held freedom and liberty together for 250 years. But also dear reader, they would want us to fight like hell if they saw any threat to our freedom. Our job right now is to now reaffirm the importance of that freedom and liberty.

Our Unitary Executive leading the new proposed USSR (United States Socialist Republic)

Dear reader, 30 months ago I started this blog: Returntothebeginning.com. Why did I do it? Well, Plato said, “democracies pass into despotism”. I did it because I saw political moral decay, materialism and a vigorous, negative political force rising up at an alarming rate. They embraced lies, dis-information, exaggeration, and innuendo. I see a large audience embracing all of the hostility and negative mayhem in our midst. I felt the history of America, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, World War I, World War II, and many other things such as oaths and pledges all being diminished and replaced by chaos and more mayhem. Now we no longer see the fear of God, nor do we hear the Battle Hymn of the Republic, both of which are strangely absent as forces of power and money diminish our past Spirituality.

I am 88 years old, a grandfather, a retired small business owner, and a writer by avocation (two self-published books - one on politics and one on climate change). I am a veteran with two older brothers buried in Arlington National Cemetery. This missive is partly put together because of what I have seen happening in the past ten months to our American military. The military is being used and demeaned in many ways by the new Executive who just happens to be a draft dodger! Is he really dismissing established highly credentialled Generals, and the Judge Advocate Generals (attorneys) so he can rearrange the order of command to his liking? You betcha! Dear reader we are not in Nazi Germany in 1934 where all German military personnel were loyal to a man not to a country! In the United States military, service men and women take an oath to the U.S. Constitution, not to a man!

I am appealing to all Americans who respect and honor truth to take part in our 250th anniversary year of the Declaration of Independence next July 4th. I have attached a copy of that declaration. I have highlighted all complaints of the colonists against King George III. The highlights represent those complaints from 250 years ago, that today are applicable in one form or another to our current Unitary President Donald Trump. Fact Check everything I'm saying dear reader! And then look at my updated attached list of current wrongs emanating from the Executive office. It is my judgment that our country is now on a sad glide path, headed for a new and different government with even a new name. That new name is The United States, a Socialist Republic. So, as you can see that stands for the USSR! We are headed for a government, all powerful, seemingly at the discretion of a unitary Executive throughout all facets. He attacks the Judicial branch of government, the loyal opposition, some in the business class, even asking for part ownership in corporate entities. The Executive now attempts to punish universities and other institutions for a variety of peculiar, mysterious, made-up reasons. Most of them appear to be groundless and unfounded. The MAGA crowd wants to ban the use of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). DEI is now replaced by a small ideological group of malcontents who want the power to decide what is OK and what is not OK to be taught to our citizens. For example, black history and slavery issues according to the Unitary Executive are all overplayed and in fact even the Smithsonian Institute will have to make changes. The Pentagon has been asked to remove photos of black servicemen like Lieutenant Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player, whose photo was taken down from a prominent place. The black Tuskegee Institute pilots who were renowned in World War II, as white B17 pilots began asking for the Tuskegee pilots in their P51 Mustangs to escort them into Germany on bombing missions. Now at the Pentagon they are impacting the nomenclature of our military structure. It is a controlled political stunt, picking who is in and who is out according to political beliefs. Is this a disgraceful turn of events for the American military? You betcha! It is anti-American and un-American to make these changes to our miliary.

Sounds scary? Yep! Now remember vaccinations and many sciences are at risk. Climate change, windmills no longer needed, the EPA no longer needed because global warming is a “hoax”. Now coal will be held in higher esteem. Many of us now see a progressive daily encroachment against the traditional structure of our government. Is this unexpected? The American Founding Fathers that structured the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution would be proud, that we have held freedom and liberty together for 250 years. But also, dear reader, they would want us to fight like hell if they saw any threat to our freedom. Our job is to now reaffirm the importance of that freedom and liberty. That would be the gift we could give them 250 years later. They would applaud and encourage us over what they had given to “the people”. Remember dear reader, tyranny in any form, authoritarians in any form, monarchs in any form, do not belong in the “people’s” White House. They have never been a good fit for America and never will be! NEVER, NEVER! Lastly, we can never forget that Patrick Henry in a church in Richmond Virginia stood up in front of many patriots including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and said the famous expression “give me liberty or give me death”.

Study/study, fight/fight, pray/pray that we are worthy of the freedom and liberty given to us by our Founding Fathers 250 years ago!

Let us join together and keep America strong for another 250 years, as we now review that document that started it all:

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Declaration of Independence - Full Text

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, 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 endeavored 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 complete 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 endeavored 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 British 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.

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Below is my 2025 addendum to the original Declaration of Independence. Dear reader, we have been injured by our Unitary Executive and below are his list of injuries to the country, in addition to those highlighted above:

• His MAGA political followers holding a government position must pledge to accept all of his lies, half truths, and exaggerated pronouncements without question or suffer retribution and revenge.

• He separates us from unity by the use of division, bias, bigotry and cruelty.

• He keeps the power of MAGA Senators and Congressmen in his

  political corner using threats and intimidation.

• He has removed diversity, equity, and inclusion from political and social usage, using his own personal interpretation of what is right and wrong.

• He has attempted to put tariffs under his control and uses a variety of means of how he is charging the tariffs, many times according to his political views and sometimes on a whim.

• He seeks full control of all agencies that provide statistical information monthly, bi-annually, and annually, and wants independent objective opinions eliminated. Vice President JD Vance stated September 4, 2025 that MAGA Senators and Democratic Senators that criticized HHS head Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were "full of shit". Vaccinations are now suspect according to Donald Trump, JD Vance and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

• He seeks to control all voting rights and to eliminate mail-in votes. And he has even stated Vladimir Putin agrees with him, that mail-in voting is wrong! Fact check!

• He is reticent and slow to support Ukraine and puts himself in the middle between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin instead of making it clear he supports freedom loving Ukraine.

• He seeks to control all interpretations of American history and informs our agencies, our universities and our museums of his desire for limitations and changes to be made in certain areas.

• He has weakened the military by dismissing all Judge Advocate General officers.

• He seeks to question black generals and their legitimacy of promotion, under DEI.

• He suggests the 4,000 military transgenders will be re-examined over their medical issue rights.

• He has often attacked and attempted to destroy several institutions simply by his chaotic unplanned method of revamping and often putting a stop to previously and properly appropriated funding by the Legislature.

• He boasts of retribution, revenge and cruelty as a working part of his governance style.

• He uses “the People’s” White House as a “Casino Royale”, setting up an LLC for his meme coins, selling $100,000 watches, shoes, bibles and many other items including the pursuit of dark money. Fact check!

• He has doubled his personal wealth by over $2 billion in just the past 12 months. How much is derived from his standing as the Unitary Executive? The tax paying public is allowed to demand an accounting.

• He says the Jeffrey Epstein matter over the sexual abuse of minors is all generated by Democrats and it’s a hoax. He has offered little sympathy for the survivors of this scandal. However, he has authorized Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of aiding Epstein's sex trafficking operation, to be transferred to a minimum security prison.

• He is not transparent, and he is conspiratorial in many of his actions.

• His inability to practice veracity and truthfulness has been demonstrated to be in excess of 30,000 or more lies and disinformation, in his first term as President. And it continues still.

• He did conspire with the Heritage Foundation, the creators of Project 2025, to keep their plans a secret during the 2024 political campaign.

• He has fired all Inspectors General of all branches of government without cause, offering no explanation for the dismissals. Shortly after he took office.

• He has spoken of acquiring Canada, Greenland and Panama as a personal wish to add those territories to the U.S.

• He uses the DOJ and the FBI as a personal harassment group against his perceived opponents.

• He allows ICE agents to wear masks, refusing to be identified, and to have extraordinary arrest capabilities.

• He purchases expensive fancy cars to appeal to ICE agents while giving them $50,000 signing bonuses.

• He allowed ICE agents to go into a major wildfire in the state of Washington to interrupt and detain over 100 firefighters while looking to arrest two un-documented fire fighters.

• He treats immigrants as the enemy of the American people, forfeiting any and all of their legal rights; that includes due process of law. Vice President JD Vance even states that Pope Frances and Pope Leo XIV are wrong in their interpretation of the Christian ethic that calls out empathy and sympathy for immigrants.

• He practices dis-unity, divide and conquer by suggesting the loyal opposition is the “enemy of the people”.

• He stopped all legally appropriated monies that the House had passed for USAID causing over 200,000 deaths because of the lack of food. Please fact check and fact check again! The food aid in the warehouses actually rotted for lack of funding to distribute it. Fact check!

• He thinks foreign aid in America, which is less than 1% of our total budget, is a waste of money even though the American farmers do well using the crops they grow on behalf of starving children, in Africa and other places in the world. Fact check!

• He sees little in the grievous suffering of Gazan children dying of starvation. He even stated loudly “we gave them food and they never even said thank you!” He does not care that Premier Benjamin Netanyahu is now an authoritarian and that Israel is no longer a democratic society. Their leader has destroyed seven or eight hospitals in and around Gaza, while 200 journalists have been killed covering the war. The landscape in this war area is totally destroyed. Billions and billions of dollars worth. The Israeli artillery has damaged the only Catholic church in Gaza resulting in three deaths. During the war the Catholic priest in that church was in weekly communication with the Pope in Rome, both Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV.

• He has failed to explain why between January 1^st and August 28^th of 2025 the Federal spending over budget is $1,075,363,889,754! Remember this is the President that in his first 4 years in office spent $7.6 trillion more than he took in. Right now, during his second term he boasts of so much revenue being brought into the government, yet we are already over $1 trillion more in debt! We must demand an explanation! Fact check via the running debt clock!

• In eight months he has gone through six IRS Chairmen. He has laid off over 25,000 IRS employees. Meanwhile he has virtually shut down the white-collar crime division of the Department of Justice, by getting rid of the attorneys assigned there. He seems to govern using condemnation, hostility and mayhem. Too often, when he is confronted with reasonable oversight against some of his activities he claims it is “all a hoax” coming from his opponents.

• Finally dear reader, he will not lead the free world the way Ronald Reagan did. Ronald Reagan helped Afghanistan with Stinger missiles. Ronald Reagan helped break up the Iron Curtain and the Soviet Union and was instrumental in dismantling the Berlin wall. Ukraine and the NATO countries in Europe need our help right now. What is our President afraid of?

Dear reader the above is just a partial list! Because I am an American citizen who loves God and loves his country, I want to defend what our Founding Fathers gave us! That gift was freedom and liberty. I am personally convinced that all the Founding Fathers must have read this poem by Milton:

So hung his destiny, never to rot While he might still jog on and keep his trot Made of sphere-metal, never to decay Until his revolution was at stay

John Milton 1608-1675

Thank you, dear reader, I believe all of us should strive to seek a better, more peaceful world to benefit our children and grandchildren. We must embrace truth and the spirituality of a just God, seeking His assistance, so that we may sustain this great experiment for freedom and liberty another 250 years.

Opening Image: Adobe Stock, Stablediffusion.com, Saaria.com