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Kimberly Amadeo: ”The End of the American Dream? Did the Recession Kill the American Dream?” (2018)

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Kimberly Amadeo: ”The End of the American Dream? Did the Recession Kill the American Dream?” (2018)

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The economy before the 2008 financial crisis relied on debt and derivatives. Debt said, "Eat, drink, and be merry...you don't have to pay until tomorrow." Derivatives said, "Trust me. Your investment will increase in value." The derivative bubble burst with the financial crisis. All we have left is the debt: $21 trillion in federal debt and $3.9 trillion in consumer debt. Combined, that's much more than the U.S. gross domestic product of $19.5 trillion.

Other statistics sounded an alarm. Years of high unemployment led to underemployment for those who were working. It led to long-term unemployment for those who weren't. Also, gas prices remained stubbornly high even though oil prices dropped. That created high food prices and health care costs. In 2010, the White House Task Force on the Middle Class reported, "It is more difficult now than in the past for many people to achieve middle-class status because prices for certain key goods - health care, college, and housing - have gone up faster than income."

Even before the recession, most Americans had lost hope in the Dream. A 2004 survey found that two-thirds felt the Dream was becoming harder to achieve, especially for young families. They blamed financial insecurity, poor quality education, and even the government itself. More than 30 percent felt they weren't living the Dream, and nearly half thought it was unattainable for them.

Is the American Dream a myth? Research shows that the best route to high income is the education. But the United States has lower rates of income mobility than other developed countries. America scores lower than France, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Finland, Norway, and Denmark. The researchers concluded that the idea of America as the land of opportunity was misplaced. Sociologist Richard Wilkinson commented that "if Americans want to live the American dream, they should go to Denmark."

"The vaunted American dream, the idea that life will get better, that progress is inevitable if we obey the rules and work hard, that material prosperity is assured, has been replaced by a hard and bitter truth. The American dream, we now know, is a lie. We will all be sacrificed. The virus of corporate abuse - the perverted belief that only corporate profit matters - has spread to outsource our jobs, cut the budgets of our schools, close our libraries, and plague our communities with foreclosures and unemployment."

Rising income inequality created a sense of hopelessness and frustration. In 2005, the top 1 percent of workers earned more than the bottom 40 percent put together. One-fourth of Americans made less than the federal poverty level. When adjusted for inflation, most Americans made less than they did when Bill Clinton was president.

Income inequality meant that many tried to attain their version of the American Dream through credit cards. In her book, " Did You Buy the American Dream?" author Jean Riall said, " Somewhere along the way, we decided we deserved everything, all at once. So we bought it on credit."

Others believe the American Dream, while once alive, is now dead and buried. As a result, they predict U.S. economic collapse. For example, " The End of the American Dream" saw slow economic growth as proof that the recession never ended. It just took a break until the second Great Depression. They warned that China's growth would eclipse that of the United States. Then the Chinese will tell Americans what to do. They also see social trends as proof that the American Dream has died. That includes epidemics of obesity, child abuse, and drug addiction.

It's true that global economic conditions have changed. Now governments can't afford to give everyone the financial American Dream. But our Founding Fathers envisioned that government would provide the opportunity for everyone to work toward their vision of happiness. They never intended for it to provide world dominance and the guarantee of a good life.

Are we headed for an extended lower standard of living? Perhaps the old American Dream based on material wealth is unsustainable. But is that so wrong? Unemployment freed many from jobs they hated anyway. Fewer loans meant we relied less on banks and more on each other. The crowd-sharing society returned us to our core strength. That's reliance on each other instead of the government.

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The financial crisis may have ended the modern American Dream. It also forced us to return to the one envisioned by our Founding Fathers.

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What does Obama say about the American Dream?

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Kimberly Amadeo: ”What Is the American Dream Today? Has It Drifted From the Vision of Our Founding Fathers?” (2018)

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Kimberly Amadeo: ”What Is the American Dream Today? Has It Drifted From the Vision of Our Founding Fathers?” (2018)

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The American Dream is the idea that the government should protect each person's opportunity to pursue their idea of happiness.

The government protects the rights of you and every other American citizen to find their path to economic prosperity. Unlike many other countries, you are not required to follow your father's profession. Your destiny is not legally determined at birth by caste, religion, or gender. There is still discrimination, but the law protects your right to pursue a better life.

However, some wonder if the American Dream is dead or threatened. Let's examine the evidence by looking at its history.

The American Dream's Origins

The Declaration of Independence states the principles that underlie the American Dream: "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."﻿﻿

The Founding Fathers based the U.S. Constitution-the highest law in the land-on these rights. Each person's desire to pursue happiness was not just self-indulgence, but also drove ambition and creativity. By legally protecting these values, the Founding Fathers created an attractive society for those aspiring to a better life.﻿﻿

The Declaration continues: "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." For the drafters of the Declaration and later the Constitution, the American Dream could only thrive if it were not hindered by taxation without representation.﻿﻿

The people should have the right to elect officials to represent them. These leaders must abide by the laws themselves and not create new legislation without oversight. Legal disputes must be settled by a jury rather than by the whim of the leader.

How U.S. Presidents Shaped the American Dream

At first, the Founding Fathers only extended the Dream to white property owners.﻿﻿﻿ But the idea of inalienable rights was so powerful that laws were added to extend these rights to formerly enslaved people, women, and non-property owners. In this way, the American Dream changed the course of America itself.

For example, President Abraham Lincoln extended the American dream to formerly enslaved people with the Emancipation Proclamation, and President Woodrow Wilson supported women's voting rights, which led to the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in June 1919.

More presidential changes:

President Franklin D. Roosevelt: Roosevelt outlined an Economic Bill of Rights in his 1944 State of the Union address, defining the pursuit of happiness as decent housing, a good job, education, and health care.

President Harry S. Truman: Truman's "post-war social contract" included the GI Bill, providing government-funded college degrees for returning veterans. Truman's Fair Deal expanded the dream to include entitlement: If you worked hard and played by the rules, the government should guarantee financial security, education, health care, and a home.﻿﻿

President Lyndon B. Johnson: Johnson promoted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ending segregation in the schools and protecting workers from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton supported the Dream of homeownership. President Barack Obama supported the legal benefits of the marriage contract regardless of sexual orientation. Obama furthered FDR's idea that everyone should have access to affordable health care. He softened the recession's blow for many by extending unemployment benefits and increasing government assistance for student loans.

The American Dream and Success

As we can see, throughout U.S. history, the definition of "happiness" has changed. In the Roaring 20s, the Founders' dream of protecting opportunities receded in favor of acquiring material things. In the novel "The Great Gatsby," author F. Scott Fitzgerald both defined the aspirations of the age and warned of its consequences.

Happiness based upon greed was not attainable because someone else always had more, he pointed out.﻿﻿ The stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression proved him right.

After the 1920s, many presidents supported the Gatsby Dream.

The American Dream's prosperity has also been a compelling vision for other nations, along with the idea that protecting citizens' rights to improve their lives is the best way to ensure national economic growth.﻿﻿

But the U.S has long had a setting conducive to prosperity, peace, and opportunity. For example, the United States has a large landmass under one government, benign neighbors, and abundant natural resources. These include oil and minerals, rainfall, and plenty of rivers. Long shorelines and a flat terrain ease transportation.

These conditions fostered a populace united by language, political system, and values, which allowed a diverse population to possess a competitive advantage. U.S. companies use that advantage to become more innovative, with a large, diverse, and easily accessible test market for new and niche products.

Today, this approach extends to private enterprise and a free-market economy in the U.S., which depends on the free flow of information. It also supports free trade agreements and foreign direct investment.

The American Dream: Is it Dead?

Several factors are challenging the American Dream's continued viability. Including:

Low mobility: The United States has lower rates of income mobility than other developed countries. America scores lower than France, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Finland, Norway, and Denmark.﻿﻿

Government debt: The U.S. has $27 trillion in federal debt and $4 trillion in consumer debt. Combined, that's much more than the U.S. gross domestic product of $21 trillion.﻿﻿

Climate change: Some people feel their vision of the American dream is threatened by solutions like the Green New Deal. But if nothing is done, global warming will slow growth. Between 2007 and 2017, extreme weather, health risks, sea-level rise, and food inflation, have cost the U.S. government $350 billion.﻿﻿

Some point to social trends as proof that the American Dream has died, including epidemics of obesity, child abuse, and drug addiction.

A "New" American Dream?

Global economic conditions have indeed changed. But the Founding Fathers never intended the American Dream to provide world dominance and the guarantee of a good life. The Declaration of Independence says nothing about a particular lifestyle and doesn't define how happiness should look.

Our Founding Fathers' vision sought to ensure that everyone has equal opportunity to pursue their vision of happiness. It also promotes faith in private free enterprise as a way to pursue that happiness. All people have an equal and inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of their happiness. Federal law protects this right.

Many are turning to a new definition of the American dream that better reflects the country's values for which it was named. In her book The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream, Courtney E. Martin writes that Americans should "return to some of the most basic ... questions: What is enough money? How do we want to spend our finite energy and attention? What makes us feel accountable and witnessed?" She suggests you should aspire to create "a life you can be genuinely proud of, an 'examined life' (in the words of dead Greek guys), a life that you are challenged by, a life that makes you giddy, that sometimes surprises you, a life that you love."﻿﻿

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How Our Founding Fathers Protected the American Dream

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The American Dream is the idea that the government should protect each person's opportunity to pursue their idea of happiness. The government protects the rights of you and every other American citizen to find their path to economic prosperity. Unlike many other countries, you are not required to follow your father's profession.

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Paula Serafini: ”Is it time for the American dream to die?” (2017) 

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Paula Serafini: ”Is it time for the American dream to die?” (2017) 

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Serafini (2017) ”Is it time for the American dream to die” (4 ns)

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https://www.netflix.com/dk-en/title/70028899

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Corporal Joe Bauers, a decisively average American, is selected as a guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program but is forgotten, awakening to a future so incredibly moronic he's easily... Read all Corporal Joe Bauers, a decisively average American, is selected as a guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program but is forgotten, awakening to a future so incredibly moronic he's easily the most intelligent person alive. Corporal Joe Bauers, a decisively average American, is selected as a guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program but is forgotten, awakening to a future so incredibly moronic he's easily the most intelligent person alive.

Review

It's not about the fart jokes...

As social satire, Idiocracy is just as good as Office Space, but with a wider scope. To criticize this film as too puerile due to potty humor is to kind of miss the point, I think. There are certainly fart jokes etc., but they're not really intended to be funny to the audience - they exist to define the state of "culture" in the world of 2500 AD visited by Joe, as a background to the bizarre state of affairs in which he awakes. The real humor of the film lies in the many sight gags and attitudes present in this future society that are just a shade off of what we encounter in our daily lives, and which should serve as a warning. My personal favorite is the depiction of Fox News. The subtle brilliance in the film lies in the fact that it also digs at "smart" people, and average Joes like the protagonists. Note the times in the film when Joe and Rita almost subconsciously conform to the idiots around them, and you realize that Idiocracy is not created to pick on any group of people in particular, but on the culture of idiocy in general. I don't know what to say about the "made for conspiracy theory" behavior of Fox in releasing this film, but if it's not playing in your local theater, demand it. We all need to see this film, if not for the social commentary, at least for the fart jokes...

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Idiocracy: Directed by Mike Judge. With Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, Terry Crews. Corporal Joe Bauers, a decisively average American, is selected as a guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program but is forgotten, awakening to a future so incredibly moronic he's easily the most intelligent person alive.

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Donald Trump's Most Outrageous Moments ( Ultimate Compilation)

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David Smith: ”How Trump won the election: volatility and a common touch” (2016)

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David Smith: ”How Trump won the election: volatility and a common touch” (2016)

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Class summary

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It is one of the most astonishing victories in American political history. It will leave millions in the US and beyond in shock, wondering what is to come, and asking: how did Donald Trump do it?

Trump was the first reality TV star - and the first non-politician since Dwight Eisenhower - to win the nomination for president of a major political party. He was the first to spend part of his campaign denying sexual assault allegations and clashing with the family of a fallen soldier and a Miss Universe. At 70, he is the oldest person in history to be elected US president.

A simple message

Trump copied and recast Ronald Reagan's promise to make America great again. In four words it captured both pessimism and optimism, both fear and hope. The slogan harks back to a supposed golden age of greatness - the 1950s, perhaps, or the 1980s - and implies that it has been lost but then promises to restore it. It went straight to the gut, unlike rival Hillary Clinton's website manifesto and more nuanced proposals.

It was an appeal to the heart, not the head, in a country where patriotism should never be underestimated.

Chris Matthews, a host on MSNBC, said in September: "A lot of this support for Trump, with all his flaws which he displays regularly, is about the country - patriotic feelings people have, they feel like the country has been let down. Our elite leaders on issues like immigration, they don't regulate any immigration it seems. They don't regulate trade to our advantage, to the working man or working woman's advantage. They take us into stupid wars. Their kids don't fight but our kids do.

"It's patriotic. They believe in their country. .... [There is a] deep sense that the country is being taken away and betrayed. I think that is so deep with people that they're looking at a guy who's flawed as hell like Trump and at least it's a way of saying I am really angry about the way the elite has treated my country. And it's so deep that it overwhelms all the bad stuff from Trump. It's that strong. It's a strong force wind."

Celebrity

In 2003 Trump became the host of the reality TV show The Apprentice, in which hopefuls competed for a chance to work for his organisation. For a decade millions of viewers were fed the idea of Trump as a successful businessman, a boss with the power to say: "You're fired!"

Trump biographer Gwenda Blair said: "It gave him 10 years of being in front of the American public being the boss, being CEO, hiring people, famously firing people, being the guy who can fix it, the one who knows everything, being the big authoritarian patriarchal guy.

"I think that has imprinted on a lot of people, that they 'trust' him, that that makes him 'trustworthy'. That combined with the reality TV phenomenon in which it became acceptable to have something that wasn't really true. It legitimised a kind of a not-quite-true thing and shifted our idea of what's an acceptable version of reality."

In the media age, Trump had accumulated not only financial capital but celebrity capital. On 8 November he cashed in.

His opponent

In Clinton he faced a candidate whose unpopularity rating was surpassed only by his own. As the wife of a former president running to succeed a two-term Democrat, she was the ultimate face of the establishment in a year that was all about change. The lack of enthusiasm compared to Barack Obama's rise in 2008 was palpable.

Clinton's unique vulnerability was exposed when she struggled to beat Senator Bernie Sanders, a 74-year-old socialist from Vermont, in the Democratic primary. Sanders' main theme was a rigged economy. In regions of deindustrialisation and wage stagnation, Trump rode the same anti-trade and anti-globalisation wave.

People who perceived themselves to be caught in an economic downdraft - their children would be worse off than they were - wanted a simple fix and Trump seemed to provide it. As witnessed by the rise of other populists around the world, there were global forces at work that not even Clinton and the Democrats could resist.

Clinton's long political career also came with baggage, most notably the FBI investigation into her use of private email server when she was secretary of state. She was judged to have been "extremely careless" and the issue flared up again in late October when the FBI said it uncovered a new batch of emails. The whiff of scandal persisted despite his decision to clear her again just over a week later. Historians are likely to debate how crucial FBI director James Comey's intervention was in tilting the race when set against her own failings as a politician.

The Republican recovery

Trump seemingly declared war on his own party. During and after a traumatic primary campaign, he attacked the Bush family, House speaker Paul Ryan, former nominees Mitt Romney and John McCain and many more. It was anything but a united front and it would normally have cost him in terms of a lack of organisational "ground game" or financial muscle.

But many Trump voters relished his attacks on the party establishment. They complained the the members of Congress they elected made promises they fail to keep. They noticed the years of deadlock and government shutdown and thirsted for change. So when Romney and company condemned him, it actually worked to his advantage as a rallying point for his supporters. He ripped up the rule book as the maverick outsider set to march on corrupt, do-nothing Washington.

And yet, at the same, the Republican national committee never lost faith in him. Chair Reince Priebus was quick to declare Trump the nominee and twist and turn and excuse his every misdemeanour. Chief strategist and communications director Sean Spicer aggressively pushed the Trump cause. Somehow, even as pieces of debris flew off in every direction, the party machinery kept working to deliver the unlikeliest of victories, and vindication for Priebus.

Antithesis

Yes, the demographics were against him. When Obama was first elected in 2008, 74% of the total voter turnout was white. By 2012, this had fallen to 71%, and in 2016, it was expected to dip to 69%. After Romney's defeat four years ago, a Republican autopsy report urged the party to reach out to women and minorities to survive; Trump did the exact opposite.

But other pressures were at work. The Democrats had held the White House for eight years. Clinton would have been the first candidate since George HW Bush in 1988 to extend one party's hold for a third term. Even Obama's high approval rating evidently did not dim the appetite for his direct opposite.

David Axelrod, mastermind of Obama's election wins, wrote in the New York Times last January: "Open-seat presidential elections are shaped by perceptions of the style and personality of the outgoing incumbent. Voters rarely seek the replica of what they have. They almost always seek the remedy, the candidate who has the personal qualities the public finds lacking in the departing executive."

He added: "Many Republicans view dimly the very qualities that played so well for Mr Obama in 2008. Deliberation is seen as hesitancy; patience as weakness. His call for tolerance and passionate embrace of America's growing diversity inflame many in the Republican base, who view with suspicion and anger the rapidly changing demographics of America. The president's emphasis on diplomacy is viewed as appeasement.

"So who among the Republicans is more the antithesis of Mr Obama than the trash-talking, authoritarian, give-no-quarter Mr Trump?"

Misogyny, racism and nihilism

Trump was wildly ill-disciplined. There was outrageous behaviour and offensive statements that alienated women, African Americans, Mexicans, Muslims, disabled people and, ultimately, believers in constitutional democracy. In any normal year, such a volatile package would have been disqualifying. But while those voices were amplified in the media, there were plenty of people who agreed with him. Some could not stomach the idea of a female president. Some proved that racism has not withered away, but rather in some cases has intensified, since the election of the first African American president.

A majority (56%) of white Americans - including three in four (74%) of white evangelical Protestants - said American society has changed for the worse since the 1950s in a recent survey by the Public Religion Research Institute.

Trump was the ultimate protest vote with obvious echoes of Brexit. Film-maker Michael Moore told NBC's Meet the Press in October: "Across the midwest, across the Rustbelt, I understand why a lot of people are angry. And they see Donald Trump as their human Molotov cocktail that they get to go into the voting booth on November 8 and throw him into our political system. I think they love the idea of blowing up the system."

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How Trump won the election: volatility and a common touch

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It is one of the most astonishing victories in American political history. It will leave millions in the US and beyond in shock, wondering what is to come, and asking: how did Donald Trump do it? Trump was the first reality TV star - and the first non-politician since Dwight Eisenhower - to win the nomination for president of a major political party.

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donald trump's victory speech (full text) - cnnpolitics

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Here's the full text of Donald Trump's victory speech

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Here is the text of the speech Donald Trump delivered when he became the President-elect of the United States of America.

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History Specials: King Leads the March on Washington | History

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Donald Trump's convention speech in 5 minutes

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NYT: ”If You’re Not Scared About Fascism in the U.S., You Should Be” (2018)

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NYT: ”If You’re Not Scared About Fascism in the U.S., You Should Be” (2018)

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“If you use history and philosophy as a guide, it’s easy to see parallels between Trump’s words and those of the most reviled fascists in history. That scares me, and it should scare you too,” says...

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Barack Obama's "The American Promise" (2008)

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Barack Obama's "The American Promise" (2008)

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Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union" (2008)

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Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union" (2008)

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Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" Speech | History

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Trump's innagural address (2017)

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Donald J. Trump - Inaugural Address (2017)

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I have a dream-Martin Luther King(English subtitles)

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Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" (1963)

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Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" (1963)

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The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

hen 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 endeavoured 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 harass 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 benefit 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 compleat 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 endeavoured 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.

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

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The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America hen 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.

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Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Performed By President Obama

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The Gettysburg Address is one of the best-known speeches in American history. It was delivered by Lincoln during the American Civil War, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States fought from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America. The Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U.S. history. The war had its origin in the factious issue of slavery, especially the extension of slavery into the western territories.

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN, "GETTYSBURG ADDRESS" (19 NOVEMBER 1863)

[1] Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

[2] Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

[3] But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
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Lincoln, "Gettysburg Address," Speech Text - Voices of Democracy

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN, "GETTYSBURG ADDRESS" (19 NOVEMBER 1863) [1] Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. [2] Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so ...

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History of America - from Mammoths to Obama in 8

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Glossary

beckon (verb) | DA | EN

bridle (verb) | DA | EN

cohesive (adj.) | DA | EN

compatriot (noun) | DA | EN

imperishable (adj.) | DA | EN

indulge (verb) | DA | EN

intemperate (adj.) | DA | EN

mortgage (verb) | DA | EN

paradox (noun) | DA | EN

reverence (noun) | DA | EN

teetotaler (noun) | DA | EN

turmoil (noun) | DA | EN

virtue (noun) | DA | EN

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John Steinbeck (1966) ''Paradox and Dream''

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Reading of the Declaration of Independence