We still have the power.
We will use it to protect our fragile democracy for our children’s sake.
This 4th of July is a new fight to reclaim democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people, lest it perish from the earth.
On July 4, 1776, Jefferson served up these words to a dictatorial king:
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.
We at AFIE renew the clarion call to freedom. When those we trusted to guard our rights and freedoms have instead debased their offices, usurping unprecedented and unconstitutional powers, we must take the power back. When the corrupt yoke of subjugation becomes intolerable, we face the fact that whatever it takes, we must rise up and throw it off.
We insist upon and will not relinquish the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. We insist upon and will not relinquish the right to see that no one is above the law. We insist upon and will not relinquish the right to vote for a president and not a dictator or king.
When our government or courts have become destructive of these rights, it is the right of the people, Our Ultimate Right, to abolish corruption and institute new laws and scruples, so as to affect our safety and happiness.
This work is bigger than any one individual, bigger than any one candidate, any one political party, any one ideology. The choice we make now will extend far beyond the next presidential term. In November, we will choose our children’s future. The air they breathe, the schools they attend, their bodily autonomy, whether doctors can treat them or not—all of this and much more is on the ballot this election day.
This much has become crystal clear now: This job belongs exclusively to us, the American people. It is OUR collective responsibility to come together across our differences to safeguard each and every child’s freedom to:
Thrive in outstanding public schools
Determine their life’s choices for themselves
Achieve economic security
Drink clean water and breathe clean air
Have access to affordable, medically sound healthcare
Make personal decisions about their families and bodies, guided by doctors and their own values and morals
Vote and have their vote counted
Live peacefully, safely, and free from gun violence and the fear of gun violence
Be exactly who they are and love who they love
Practice any religion, or no religion at all
Find equal opportunity of employment, housing, safety, health care, and all the rest, without regard to their ethnicity, race, age, ability, or other aspect of integral identity.
The winners and losers here are not Democrats or Republicans, but our democracy itself and our children and grandchildren whose lives will be impacted in every imaginable way.
We face a clear choice between two paths, two futures, two Americas. Our leaders did not sign the Declaration of Independence simply because they disliked King George or thought he was unpleasant, nasty, old, or vulgar. The Declaration of Independence was not a personal attack. As we proudly teach our children in school, the Founding Fathers made that Declaration because they recognized a tyrannical power grab when they saw one. Our children learn that the signers of the Declaration envisioned a better, freer direction for our emerging nation and were willing to fight to achieve it. And although our Founding Fathers’ vision was limited and flawed, the essence of their ideals is there in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. It falls to us, now, at this moment, for the sake of our kids’ future and our nation’s future, to fulfill the American vision.
In the coming weeks and months, we will look at the two divergent views of our nation’s future, specifically how these plans will impact our children’s education and future. We will analyze “Project 2025,” which we regard as an assault on American Democracy and the future of public education. Just as we shared our vision for outstanding community schools in 2023, we will share our vision for a more perfect, thriving, and free country in 2024.
AFIE will continue to cover local education issues as they arise. Central Bucks is our home district and we will continue to attend to the issues here.
But for now, the policy considerations that seem most important to us, indeed life-altering for all of us, especially our children into the immediate future and long beyond it, are happening at the national level.
Project 2025 will have a devastating impact on our neighborhood schools. This platform calls for cuts to Title I, the restructuring of special education funding as block grants for parents to use on private schools, the elimination of the Dept of Education, and enfeeblement of civil rights laws in schools. Vouchers, the gift of your tax money to those who choose private school, lie not far behind.
Our message to all our readers, those who know us now and those we hope to reach in the future, is this: if the colonies could fight a war and win it to secure their rights we can win the fight by voting.
We can illuminate the stark contrasts between the two proposed directions for our county.
We can refuse power grabs and corruption by courts, corporations, and candidates.
We can stand up for our cherished public schools, wellsprings of democracy and community.
We can uphold the separation of church and state.
We can guard each individual’s freedom to choose to worship as they wish or not at all.
We can champion the rights of ALL the people to exist and thrive consistent with American values of community and pluralism.
We can guarantee the right of ALL citizens to their sacred vote.
If we do not do this, our children will live in a country unrecognizable to us. We can still stop it. In the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and following its impeccable reasoning, we can, in fact must, rise up to choose a free future in a democratic land for our children and their children.
This 4th of July is a new fight to reclaim democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people, lest it perish from the earth.
We, the people, have the power, and we intend to use it.