HEATHER ROSE DOMINIC'S BLOG

Garden: A Two Minute Play in Three Acts

Two Auditions: A Two Minute Comedy in Three Acts

Table Readings 07 "Table Reading at Nate's"

TABLE READINGS

"Table Reading at Nate's"

Written by

Heather Rose Dominic

 

  Phil placed a layer of his signature sauce at the bottom of a large baking dish, added noodles and chopped spinach, some Ricotta and more sauce and to complete the first layer of his famous lasagna, a mixture of Mozzarella and Gruyère.
  "What inning?” Phil shouted to Nate who was arranging his living room chairs into an abbreviated semi-circle.
  "Top of the third,” Nate shouted back, over Rizzuto announcing the next Yankee up to bat. He lifted one of the windows an inch to let in some of the cold winter air and picked up the screenplays that were stacked on an arm of the sofa.
  "If people don’t show, we’ll just double up on characters,” said Al as he handed Phil a wedge of cheese, then opened the oven to bring out the first lasagna.
  "Right, we can even triple up, or if no one shows, you and I can just read the whole script out loud,” Phil said as he quickly grated Parmesan over the top of the second lasagna.
  "I think you’re all set,” said Nate from the doorway of the kitchen. “Have a look.”
  Al followed Nate back into the perfectly arranged space to see scripts and highlighter pens on the sofa and chairs and an end table set with cups and spoons for eight.
  "We’re ready,” Al said confidently, observing the vibe of the room while still wearing one of Nate’s bright yellow oven mitts.

  The doorbell continued to ring as more friends arrived to a warmly lit apartment infused with the aromas of freshly brewed coffee and baking lasagna. Nate was giving a tour of the novels and plays that lined one of his living room walls while two actors who had been in his recent production up in Woodstock, were reminiscing in front of its framed poster. Al and Phil had inadvertently starred in that show one night and had signed the poster at Nate’s request. Another actor was underfoot in Nate’s tiny kitchen offering greatly unwanted baking advice to Phil.

  Once seated, each friend was assigned a role and everybody smiled at the thought of playing these characters they all loved from a TV show everyone admired. Al thanked Nate for the use of his home and the actors for their time and mentioned again that the reading was to hear their revised spec for the television series Taxi, titled, “Alex at Sea.”
  "New and improved, now with only one location,” added Phil, who got laughs from the room at the commercial like reading of his impromptu joke. Phil continued that he and Al had just got an agent based on their script for The Jeffersons, an episode that had aired back in April. Their friends cheered and Al and Phil stood up to take an exaggerated bow. The actors listened intently as Phil reiterated what their agent had advised; re-writing their strongest spec, without locations, so she could actually try and sell it. This script they felt was their best but “Alex at Sea” was about Alex learning to sail, and the Hudson, where his dream is realized, was a location they couldn’t write out. Yet Al and Phil loved their script and with hope in his voice, Al read the show’s title and they all turned to page one.

  After the reading, there was lively discussion as everyone sat with filled plates on their laps and notated scripts, opened within reach. The group went back over the script, line by line, laughing again at some of the funniest bits and imagining how the last scene on the Hudson could be filmed. Phil made note of some of their friends’ best ideas and found agreement, each time, when looking over at Al. When the final joke was read again, it was followed by the same awkward silence that had occurred after the initial read through. Al and Phil had noticed the uncomfortable silence the first time around and now asked their friends what they didn’t like about the ending. One actor replied that he didn’t find the last joke especially funny and everyone quickly agreed. Another actor said the joke evoked a tone of sadness she didn’t like and wished that Alex could have been happier at the end of the show. Everyone agreed with that point as well.

  Al had added the new joke only last night when he and Phil were taking a final look at their script. Phil hadn’t really understood the joke but agreed with Al that Alex wouldn’t be entirely happy at the end of their story. Though Alex had fulfilled his dream of sailing his friends along the Hudson, he had missed his sailing certification test that same day and, in the end, knew that he could probably never afford a boat of his own.

  The men were walking down Amsterdam from Nate’s brownstone to Al’s apartment on Seventy-eighth and as they walked, they debated taking the wistful joke out of their script. Al tried delivering it a variety of funny ways but thought that if he couldn’t make Phil laugh by the time they got to his stoop, he would give up on the joke.

  “Take it out,” said Al, from the sidewalk in front of his building. “It worked up there, maybe you need to be up there to get it,” he joked, looking towards his window.
  "I was up there, I still didn’t get it,” Phil laughed.
  "Now you laugh,” said Al waving his friend away with a smile. Phil watched Al enter his building, then turned for home where he would type up the revised spec before mailing it to Los Angeles the next morning.

  In the weeks after the reading and while they waited to hear back from their agent, Phil was on the road, preventing him and Al from writing together on the weekends. Phil was assisting Nate during the out-of-town tryouts for Nate’s new show and wasn’t expected back until mid-January. Al was picking up extra shifts at the garage and had taught himself how to knit, clearly ignoring the writer’s block that had claimed most of his days since the table reading. Half-written jokes resided in notebooks that Al hardly opened and his inability to write seemed to bring on a procession of equally unpleasant experiences.

  Al was leaning back on his bed, half-watching a morning game show, with a bag of frozen peas over his left foot. The phone rang and he deliberated answering it before carefully getting up and knocking over a glass of water in the process.
  "I have news,” said Phil from the other end of the phone.
  "Phil, I just got home. I had to cover Artie’s shift, I’m getting a cold and I think I just broke a toe. Can we talk later?”
  "Which toe?
  "Does it matter?
  "No, I guess not...which foot?”
  "Phil!” Al yelled into the phone.
  "Well, throw me the keys or come down.”
  "You’re in New York?” asked Al.
  "Yes.”
  "You’ve been in New York the whole time we’ve been talking?”
  "Yes, I’m in New York, I’m downstairs. Your buzzer isn’t working!” Phil shouted over an illuminated parade of passing snow plow trucks.
  Al looked out the window, and through the falling snow, saw Phil standing at the corner payphone, waving.

  Phil appeared at the top of the stairs just as Al was opening his apartment door.
  "That was fast,” Al marveled at the speed with which Phil had ascended the fifth-floor walk-up.
  "She loved the script,” Phil said, only slightly out of breath.
  "That’s good,” said Al, who was tired but grateful for their agent’s review. “Did she hear anything yet?”
  "Not from TAXI but another show called.”
  "What other show?”
  "It hasn’t aired yet but they liked your joke.”
  The two friends stood in the doorway as Al looked out the landing window and smiled.
  "You left it in?” Al asked.
  "They want to meet us on Monday.”
  "Out there?”
  "10 a.m.”
  "Cup of coffee?”
  "Yeah,” said Phil and closed the apartment door behind him.

 

 

Mobilization, Saturday, June 30th, to protest the separation of Parents and Children at the United States - Mexico Border

Locations and times for all Marches: Families Belong Together

Five Nonprofits fighting against the separation of Parents and Children at the United States - Mexico Border

Florence Project 

Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)

The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES)

The Texas Civil Rights Project 

The Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights

Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick D.B.E June 4, 1934 - April 12, 2018

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

"The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling" is a magnificent gift of love and a complete course in the study of a beautiful life

Thank you, Judd Apatow, and to everyone who gave of their energy and love.

 

Official Trailer for "The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling"

Produced by Judd Apatow and premiering March 26th.

Statement from the National Congress of American Indians Regarding Bears Ears and Grand Staircase National Monuments

December 4, 2017

NCAI Opposes Executive Action on the Reduction of National Monuments

WASHINGTON, D.C. | NCAI opposes President Trump’s efforts to reduce two monuments that hold tribal sacred places. Today, President Trump issued Presidential Proclamations reducing the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase national monuments in Utah. These monuments were initially designated as monuments to ensure that tribal and American citizens would have use of these significant landscapes for generations to come.  The National Congress of American Indians stands by the efforts of all effected Tribal Governments and local communities who are determined to protect these sacred places in their entirety.

The Bears Ears National Monument was decreased by 85% removing protections from 1,148,000 acres. Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument was reduced by 47% removing protections from 896,000 acres. With the two Presidential Proclamations signed today, National Monument protections were removed from over 2 million acres of land.

“The original intent of the Antiquities Act was to protect our tribal sacred sites and the cultural objects in those sites. The history of our indigenous ancestors lives in these sacred places. Today’s action to reduce Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante endangers our freedom of religion, our histories and our communities,” stated Jefferson Keel, President of NCAI. “We stand with the Tribes of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition as well as the Tribes impacted by other Monument designations.”

Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante were both designated under the original intent of the Antiquities Act. The Antiquities Act granted power to the President to create national monuments to protect Tribal sacred sites and cultural objects. The Act does not grant the President the authority to reduce and revoke the boundaries of national monuments as was done today.

NCAI’s membership is steadfast in its full support of all Tribes to protect their ancient objects and histories by National Monument protections. As the Administration continues the review process of national monuments, NCAI remains working to ensure all sacred sites remain protected.

View NCAI resolutions in support of National Monument designations EC-15-002, MOH-17-006 and MKE-17-057  and NCAI’s comments submitted to the Department of the Interior  here.

###

About the National Congress of American Indians:
Founded in 1944, the National Congress of American Indians is the oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization in the country. NCAI advocates on behalf of tribal governments and communities, promoting strong tribal-federal government-to-government policies, and promoting a better understanding among the general public regarding American Indian and Alaska Native governments, people and rights. For more information, visit www.ncai.org.

Statement from the Native American Rights Fund Regarding Bears Ears National Monument

December 4, 2017

NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND FILES SUIT TO PROTECT BEARS EARS

President Trump’s action to revoke and replace the Bears Ears National Monument is not only an attack on the five sovereign nations with deep ties to the Bears Ears region, it is a complete violation of the separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution. No president has ever revoked and replaced a national monument before because it is not legal to do so. Only Congress may alter a monument. In light of this blatant violation of law, the Native American Rights Fund, representing the Hopi Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe filed a lawsuit today to protect Bears Ears.

Five tribes—Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Pueblo of Zuni, Ute Indian Tribe, and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe—led the effort to establish the Bears Ears National Monument, an area still used for cultural and religious purposes. Increased looting of the estimated 100,000 plus structures, sites, and objects within every reach of the monument dictated the need for protections in the form of a monument designation.

According to NARF Staff Attorney Matthew Campbell, “Bears Ears is one of the most important places for Indian Country, and that is why Indian Country came together to advocate for this important place. Trump’s attack on Bears Ears is an attack on all of us, and we will fight to protect it.”

NARF Staff Attorney Natalie Landreth said “The Administration is not telling the truth. The Bears Ears monument as created by President Obama preserved hunting, fishing, gathering and grazing rights, and protected these incredible lands from widespread looting and oil, gas and mineral development.” No matter what the President said today, his action does the opposite: by its own terms, in 60 days the revoked lands are open to “entry, location, selection, sale” and “disposition under all laws relating to mineral and geothermal leasing” and “location, entry and patent under mining laws.” Landreth continued, “this is taking public lands that belong to the American people and selling to the highest bidder, there is just no other way to understand it.”

This latest action follows on the heels of the Administration’s other actions against Tribes: (1) issuing the permit to the Dakota Access Pipeline, (2) issuing the permit to the Keystone XL, and (3) revoking the Executive Order to protect the Bering Sea on April 28th. Tribes vigorously opposed all of these efforts. The Administration uses the term “tribal sovereignty” but clearly does not understand what that means.

Read more about NARF’s work to protect Bears Ears National Monument.

Native American Rights Fund

Statement from the Navajo Nation Regarding Bears Ears National Monument

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2017

NAVAJO NATION WILL DEFEND BEARS EARS 

SALT LAKE CITY – On Dec. 4, President Trump signed a proclamation to reduce the Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah. The decision was met with widespread opposition from Navajo leadership.

“The Navajo Nation has made repeated requests to meet with President Trump on this issue. The Bears Ears Monument is of critical importance, not only to the Navajo Nation but to many tribes in the region,” President Begaye said. “The decision to reduce the size of the Monument is being made with no tribal consultation. The Navajo Nation will defend Bears Ears. The reduction in the size of the Monument leaves us no choice but to litigate this decision.”

“Bears Ears National Monument is not just for Native Americans but for all Americans,” Vice President Jonathan Nez said. “This is a sad day for indigenous people and for America. However, we are resilient and refuse to allow President Trump’s unlawful decision to discourage us. We will continue to fight in honor of our ancestral warriors who fought for our way of life, for our culture and for our land too.”

The Monument was declared by President Obama on Dec. 28, 2016, pursuant to his authority under the Antiquities Act. The area encompassed by the Monument has been home to Native peoples since time immemorial.

As a part of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, the Nation has worked diligently to establish the Monument and ensure that management is guided in part by the Commission, created by the original proclamation and made up of the Hopi, Uintah and Ouray Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, and Zuni Tribes.

The Navajo Nation and the Commission have engaged to protect the area due to its cultural, religious and historical significance.

The Navajo Nation along with the four other tribes represented on the Commission, a coalition of nonprofits and citizen groups have consistently rallied to defend the Monument. The tribes will collectively be filing a lawsuit against the administration.

###

Official Site of the Navajo Nation

Table Readings 06 "Writing for Alex (Part II)"

 

TABLE READINGS

"Writing for Alex"

Part II

Written by

Heather Rose Dominic

 

   Al was standing alone near the Marina’s entrance, wearing his life jacket and holding his textbook and sailing gloves.
  Phil finally arrived in a cab and saw Al up ahead, leaning against the dock’s wooden railing.
  “I am so sorry, Al... I’m so sorry,” Phil said loudly as he was running over to him.
  Al just shook his head.
  “You were right...you were totally right,” Phil continued, as he tried to catch his breath. “I couldn’t talk...I was trying to describe how you and I felt when we were onstage up in Woodstock... and I couldn’t even remember the word for...you know, when you’re really jazzed to get something right?”
  “You mean motivated?”
  “Yes! See, I still can’t remember.”
  Al smiled slightly and sighed. “Well, we know enough to write the end of the story,” he said, looking out at the water.
  Phil nodded and lowered his head. “Yeah.”
  “Jazzed?” Al asked rhetorically.
  “I can’t talk!” said Phil, throwing one hand in the air. 
  Al took off his life vest and the men started to walk towards a couple of cabs idling nearby.
  “Were you waiting for this guy to go out with that boat?” a dockhand called out, who was repairing a loose board, further down the railing.
  “Yes,” said Al bluntly.
  Phil gave Al a look.
  “Well, you can take that dinghy out, if you want, just to get on the water for a while,” he offered and tossed Phil a life jacket that had been left on the rail.

  Al and Phil were sitting in the little boat, floating on a gentle current, about a couple of hundred yards from shore. The wind was calm now and they were quietly watching the other boats sail up and down the Hudson.
  “Maybe Alex doesn’t get to complete his final test or get to his...let’s call it, his graduation, either...” Phil thought out loud suddenly.
  “...because he got stuck in traffic...” added Al without missing a beat.
  “...and everyone had gone there to cheer him on...but now they’re there to console him.”
  “Right, and is Louie there too?” Al asked?
  “Unfortunately,” said Phil, smiling.
  Al and Phil heard their names being yelled and turned to see their boat returning with its mainsail fully hoisted and its green starboard light glowing softly under the first few minutes of dusk.
  “I made my final maneuver to return for you guys!” yelled the student who had hardly spoken during the entire five-week sailing course.
  The men motored up to the boat and carefully climbed aboard while the skipper attached the dingy to the back.

  Al and Phil thanked the woman who had made her last exercise to bring the sloop back for them and even made her laugh with an impromptu joke. They went on to perform their last maneuvers successfully with Al demonstrating all the correct actions to safely recover someone for Crew Overboard and Phil stunning Al and the class with a precise and efficient trimming of the sails.

  After the final tests were completed and while the others were taking turns at the helm, the men worked on the end of their story, already titled, “Alex at Sea.”  As they traded ideas aloud, Phil wrote the new action and dialogue onto the blank pages at the back of Al’s sailing certification book. Later that evening he typed up a revised draft.

 

FADE IN:

EXT. MARINA – LATE AFTERNOON

ALEX, ELAINE, TONY, BOBBY AND JIM ARE
STANDING ON THE DOCK, WATCHING THE BOAT
THAT ALEX JUST MISSED, SAIL INTO NEW
YORK HARBOR. THEIR CABS ARE PARKED
OUTSIDE THE MARINA AND LOUIE IS
SITTING ON THE HOOD OF ONE OF THE CARS,
FLIPPING THROUGH AL’S SAILING
CERTIFICATION BOOK.

                ALEX
    Oh, damn. Damn, Damn, Damn.

                ELAINE
    It’s okay Alex, what matters is
    that you finally learned to sail, 
    not that you missed a test. You
    fulfilled a life-long dream and
    that’s exciting. Not many people
    can say that.

                ALEX
    Thanks, Elaine, but after five
    weeks at sea, I don’t think I
    can find the silver lining in
    this right now, maybe later.

                JIM
    (ARMS OUTSTRETCHED) It’s exciting
    just standing on this dock with
    you, Alex.

                ALEX
    Thanks, Jim. Come on everybody,
    let’s go to Mario’s. (WITH FORCED
    BRAVADO) Tonight, drinks are on
    me! (BACK TO REALITY) Tomorrow,
    maybe I’ll buy a canoe.

EVERYONE LAUGHS AS LOUIE WALKS OVER.

                LOUIE
    All right, you cornballs, show’s
    over. Better luck next time, Reiger.
    Now let’s get back on the road.

                BOBBY
    We took the night off, remember
    Louie? (QUIETLY) To celebrate
    Alex becoming a skipper.

                LOUIE
    Oh, yeah. Well, that ship has
    sailed! (LAUGHS AT HIS OWN JOKE)

THEY IGNORE LOUIE AND START TO WALK
TOWARD THEIR CABS, PASSING MOORED
SAILBOATS AND CRUSIERS, ALONG THE WAY.
TONY STOPS NEXT TO A LARGE MOTORBOAT.

                TONY
    (LOUDLY) Hey, Alex, why didn’t
    you just learn to sail one of
    these? With just a turn of the
    key, you could’ve already been
    on your way!

EVERYBODY REACTS TO THE BAD JOKE AS TONY
JOGS BACK UP TO THE DRIVERS AND THROWS
A PLAYFUL RIGHT HOOK TO ALEX’S SHOULDER.
SUDDENLY, A MAN CALLS OUT TO ALEX FROM
ONE OF THE DOCKED BOATS.

                MAN
    (LOUDLY) Were you supposed to be on
    the boat that just went out?

THEY ALL TURN AROUND TO SEE A RETIRED AGED MAN
AND WOMAN SITTING IN DECK CHAIRS AT THE BACK
OF A MODEST BUT SPIFFY TWO-LEVEL CABIN CRUISER.
TINY COLORFUL LIGHTS OUTLINE THE DECK OF THE
BOAT AND THE SOUNDS FROM A YANKEES BLUE JAYS
GAME ARE PLAYING FROM A PORTABLE TV, SECURED
TO A BUILT-IN TABLE.

                ALEX
    Yeah, late for my own graduation...
    it wasn’t meant to be I guess.

                MAN
    (GESTURING TO HIS OWN BOAT)
    Can you can drive one of these?

                ALEX
    Well, I’ve only ever sailed a
    twenty-foot sloop but I have
    five callouses, a perpetual back
    ache and a sunburn to prove it.

JIM THROWS A PROUD ARM AROUND ALEX’S SHOULDERS.

                MAN
    I’ll give you a shot. Get your
    friends on board and I’ll let you
    give us all a ride around the town.

ALEX HESITATES, STILL DOWN OVER MISSING
HIS FINAL SAILING CLASS.

                ELAINE
    Oh, Alex, let’s go!

                TONY
    Come on, Alex. Whenever I’d lose a
    fight, I’d always get back in the
    ring the next day.

                BOBBY
    And when I don’t get an acting
    job, I’m not thinking, I’ll
    never audition again.

                JIM
    And when I forget my last name
    sometimes, wait, who am I again?

                EVERYBODY
    Jim Ignatowski.

                                    JIM
    Right.

                ALEX
    What the hell, thank you very
    much, sir.

EVERYONE MOVES EXCITEDLY TOWARDS THE BOAT.

                ALEX (CONT’D)
    What’s your boat’s name?

                MAN
    The boat’s name is Alex.

THE DRIVERS STOP IN THEIR TRACKS AND SMILE
AT ALEX WHO CAN’T HELP BUT FEEL SENTIMENTAL.

                JIM
    (REJOICING) You were made for
    one another!

THEY ALL GET ON BOARD AND WE...

                                     DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. CABIN CRUISER – HALF AN HOUR LATER

ALEX IS STEERING “ALEX” UP THE HUDSON, PAST
A COLLECTION OF GLITTERY SKYSCRAPERS THAT
OUTLINE THE NEW YORK ISLAND.

                LOUIE
    (SLIDING UP TO ALEX) Hey, Reiger.

                ALEX
    (SURPRISED) How’d you get on here?

                LOUIE
    (SHRUGS SHOULDERS) I just got on.
    You know what I realized, Reiger?

                ALEX
    (EXASPERATED) What’s that Louie?

                LOUIE
    Not for nothin’, but you’re still
    driving people around the city!

LOUIE LAUGHS UPROARIOUSLY

                ALEX
    (ROLLING HIS EYES) Thanks, Lou.

                ELAINE
    There’s the Chrysler Building,
    right between those buildings,
    if you lean this way!

                TONY
    Yeah, and you can see the Empire
    State Building now.

                ELAINE
    What do you think of the view,
    Alex. I mean, Captain!

ELAINE GIGGLES.

                ALEX
    The view’s beautiful, Elaine, but
    the brightest lights are right here
    on this boat...thanks everybody.

EVERYBODY HUGS AND CONGRATULATES ALEX.

                LOUIE
    Good goin’ Reiger, but keep your
    eyes on the road.

                ALEX
    (CONTENTLY) Always, Louie.

THEY ALL GO BACK TO LOOKING OUT AT
THEIR TOWN.

                TONY
    (POINTING) Hey Elaine, what’s the
    name of that building?

                ELAINE
    I don’t know, Tony, but it sure is
    beautiful...

THE DRIVERS CONTINUE TO ADMIRE THE VIEW AND
AS THEY SAIL PAST THE TWINKLING SKYLINE, WE...

                                       
                                       FADE OUT.

 

  “That’s done,” said Al.
  “Definitely, we’ll finish it later,” Phil agreed with one of his signature yogiisms.

  Al and Phil were each handed a cup of champagne and the small group of sailors first raised their cups to their captain before toasting everyone else in the group. Phil leaned over to Al, while the others were laughing and talking.
  “I named one of these for Audrey,” he said, looking up at the blanket of bright navigational stars.
  “Which one?”
  “That one,” said Phil, pointing up to a specific spot in the sky.
  “The brightest one closest to that constellation?” asked Al.
  “Exactly,” Phil said
  “Great choice,” said Al.

Table Readings 05 "Writing for Alex (Part I)"

 

TABLE READINGS

"Writing for Alex"

Part I

Written by

Heather Rose Dominic

 

   Phil stepped up to the diner’s payphone, tossed a quarter in and dialed.
  “I’m here,” said Phil.
  “For your date?” Al asked from his chair at the garage where he worked seven to four, five days a week.
  “Yeah, I wanted to make sure I got our table.”
  “You’re at the diner?”
  “Why not, she lives up the block, she knows the place.”
  “You got a beautiful chorus dancer to go out with you, on her one day off, and you’re meeting her at the diner?
  “We’re just having coffee.”
  “Well, you should have made it breakfast because we have to be at the marina by five to help rig the boat, that’s half the test and you can’t be late this time.”
  “I’m not gonna be late, it’s just a cup of coffee, Al.”
  “With a beautiful chorus girl! You’re not going to remember your own name after five minutes. Listen, you guys open in a week, you’ll always see her backstage and you and Nate can bring her onto his next show but this is the last day after five weeks at sea and you can’t be late.”
  “We were in the harbor,” Phil corrected Al simply.
  “The harbor turns into the sea! Get to the dock by five. Good bye!” yelled Al.
  Phil looked at the phone receiver before hanging up.

  Al stood up and handed Artie, the night man at the garage, his sailing certification book. Artie sat down while Al leaned against the desk, put his sailing gloves on, and practiced tying a difficult knot with two pieces of rope.
  “All right, hit me with a question from any of the clipped pages,” Al asked.
  “You got it,” said Artie who peppered Al with a series of questions from the tattered soft cover book.
  “All right, one more,” said Al.
  “Okay, let’s see…how do you determine who has the right of way? Artie asked. “Whoever has the loudest horn, right?” he continued, laughing.
  “That’s it, I got this,” said Al and tossed Artie the completed knot, who caught it with one hand.
  “All this for one script?” Artie asked as he put down the book and turned on the portable TV that sat in the corner of the desk.
  “Yeah, what the hell do Phil and I know about sailing? We needed to know what Alex would be saying and how he’d feel”
  “So, Alex is gonna stop driving a cab and start driving a boat? asked Artie. “Louie’s gonna have a field day with that one,” he continued.
  Al put on his coat, shoved his sailing gloves into one of the pockets and grabbed his text book off the desk as he tried to explain his and Phil’s spec for the series, Taxi.
  “He had always wanted to learn to sail but he had only ever learned to swim, that’s all…you’ll have to watch the show, well, we have to sell the script first… all right, I gotta go.”
  Al waved to Artie who had already become engrossed in a television show and waved back without looking up.
  The tops of the oak trees were swaying from the wind that was blowing east on seventy-eighth and Al shivered once before turning up the collar of his coat.
  “You’re gonna need a bigger boat!” shouted Artie from the sidewalk at the bottom of the ramp.
  “Thanks!” Al yelled back with a laugh and continued walking towards Amsterdam Avenue.

  Phil and Audrey left the diner and headed up Amsterdam Avenue as Al turned down Amsterdam on the other side of the street.
  “It’s a little chilly but do you want to walk for a bit? It’s our one day in the sun.”
  “Absolutely,” Phil said, thoroughly smitten and completely forgetting about meeting Al downtown.
  “We could go to the Planetarium. Do you want to do that?” asked Audrey.
  “Absolutely,” Phil said again, rolling his eyes at how tongue-tied he continued to be.
  “Another theater, we can’t stay out of them!” joked Audrey.
  Phil laughed and couldn’t believe this knock out could also deliver a joke.

  Al arrived early at the dock and found the skipper and the other two class members already prepping the twenty-foot boat for the late afternoon’s windy weather. Al was put in charge of the pre-launch check list and began by telling one of the students to check the expiration date of the flares and the other to add fuel to the boat’s tank for when they motored out of the marina and onto the Hudson River.
  “Should be around twenty to twenty-five knots today, it’ll be a nice sail and a good challenge for your last day,” said the captain.

  Phil and Audrey were leaning back in the Planetarium’s tall velvet like chairs gazing up at the revolving galaxies that filled the domed theater. Phil opened a box of candy and handed it to Audrey.
  “Why do you have Sno-Caps,” she whispered as she poured some into her hand.
  “I always carry Sno-Caps,” Phil whispered back, then realized how incredibly uncool that was.
  “Smart,” said Audrey, who meant it and poured out a second handful.
  Phil looked over at Audrey who glowed under the dome’s blanket of stars and up at the infinite observable universe and marveled at the incomprehensible beauty of this moment.

  While Al was checking the lines, the boat began to rise and tilt as the water in the marina swelled from a large cargo ship that had passed by. He grabbed the mast and waited for the boat to stabilize before continuing to pull a couple of ropes out of their cleats.
  “We’re going to have to shove off in a minute, I’m sorry,” said the skipper from the bow of the boat.
  “I know,” Al said as he stood with his hands on his hips, looking in the direction of where a cab should have been pulling up.

  As the narrator began to explain the science of how mariners determined their position at sea by measuring the distance between the stars and the visible horizon, Phil jumped up, then sat down, and then jumped back up again.
  “I have to leave, I’m so sorry, but I have to leave!” Phil whispered.
  “What’s wrong?” whispered Audrey.
  “I’m supposed to be somewhere. I’ll explain tomorrow. How will you get home?”
  “I live a block away.”
  “Right, I’m sorry, see you at rehearsal” Phil said as he climbed over her without a shred of grace.
  “See you at rehearsal,” said Audrey, laughing quietly.
  Phil turned back.
  “I named that star for you,” Phil whispered, pointing up to a specific spot in the sky. “The brightest one near that constellation,” he continued before turning to leave.
  Audrey looked up at her star, smiling, as the narrator continued to expound upon the glories of celestial navigation.

To Be Continued...

One Nation. One Appeal.

oneamericaappeal.org

 

Today, fifty-two years ago, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965

 
President Lyndon B. Johnson moves to shake hands with Martin Luther King, Jr. while others look on, including Clarence Mitchell, Rosa Parks and Patricia Roberts Harris.  August 6, 1965
LBJ Library photo by Yoichi Okamoto

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Today, in 1965, President Johnson signed the Medicare and Medicaid Bill

July 30, 1965. LBJ signs the Medicare and Medicaid Bill (official name: Social Security Amendments of 1965) at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. President Harry S. Truman is seated next to him. Others looking on include Lady Bird Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and Bess Truman. After the signing and the presentation of the first Medicare cards, LBJ gives one of the bill-signing pens to Truman.

In January 1966, President Johnson returned to the Truman Library to make a speech and, at that time, presented the first Medicare cards to former President Harry and Bess Truman. 
Serial Number A1786-22, Date1201966 Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, Missouri.
Photo credit LBJ Library Photo by Yoichi Okamoto

 

 
Social Security Amendments of 1965

Obama White House: From the Archives: The Medicare Bill of 1965

How Medicare was Made by Julian E. Zelizer for The New Yorker

Table Readings 04 "Summer Stock in Woodstock (Part II)"

TABLE READINGS

"Summer Stock in Woodstock"

Part II

Written by

Heather Rose Dominic

 

  “All right, Phil, Mr. Summerfield starts here, next to the piano, and as you know from your typing, will profess his love to Arlene as soon she enters, which will be from stage left," said the director. 
  Phil gave the director a look before taking his place.
  “Al, your character is hosting this soiree and will entertain his guests with a spectacular tap routine at the top of the scene. Just give it everything you’ve got with whatever steps you have,” the director continued.
  “I still don’t understand how I never knew you could dance?” said Phil, who continued to be distracted by this revelation and was oblivious to the abounding chaos that was enveloping the stage.
  “Will you focus!” the director shouted at Phil.

  They ran through Act one, without having to stop, and though Al could clearly tap, Phil could hardly be heard until he tripped over a rug and swore loudly at the end table he subsequently knocked into. Everyone waited quietly for the director’s notes.
  “Not bad?” asked Phil, breaking the silence with a glimmer of hope.
  “You did great,” Al said with an encouraging wink and a single punch to the air.
  The director put his arm around Phil’s shoulders.
  “I’m not sure…” the director started.
  “…that I’ll be heard from the back of the house, I know,” Phil finished the director’s sentence.
  “That’s not it,” the director continued in a more serious tone.
  “He’s that handsome? Phil asked, smiling, and looking around for encouraging laughs, which he did not find.
  The director walked away, shaking his head, and the smile fell from Phil’s face.
  “I thought I could help, that’s all…but there were laughs, from whoever’s out in the house.”
  Phil noticed the other cast members drop their heads adding to the already uncomfortable silence.
  “Oh, I didn’t realize they were laughing at…oh.” He forced a smile and looked over at Al.
  “Phil, let’s get outta here, you’re more of a gent than any of those clowns in the house,” said Al, dropping his script on the floor.
  “And now Summerfield’s a hero,” the Playwright said as he walked on stage, tossing his script to Phil, who caught it with one hand. Nate had been in the wings re-writing parts of the play, during the ensuing chaos.
  “You re-wrote the role?” asked the director.
  “I re-wrote the end. Summerfield’s you, Phil…a gent indeed…and now he gets the girl”
  “Arlene returns from the Himalayas?” the actress who played Arlene asked.
  “Summerfield joins Arlene in the Himalayas…I own the copyright and we close tomorrow,” Nate said dryly.
  “Point taken,” said the actress.
  “Hold on for new pages, folks, then we’ll take it from the top of Act two, up to the last dance number,” the stage manager announced.
  “He actually changed Summerfield’s description to ‘unassuming in a heroic sort of way’,” said Al, reading from Nate’s script as he and Phil walked to their opening marks.
  “Just like in real life,” Phil said, laughing.
  “Just like in real life,” confirmed Al.

  It was an hour before curtain and Al and Phil were standing outside in full make-up and costume. They watched as the first patrons arrived, standing with their cars that they’d parked on the playhouse lawn. The sky was dark blue and a few of the cars had their low beams turned on while music was playing from their opened windows.
  “Do you have an extra cigarette, by any chance,” Al asked a woman walking by, who also offered Al a light.
  “Nerves,” said Al, pulling on the menthol cigarette.“Phil, you nervous…Phil?”
  Al turned to see Phil standing on line at the concession stand.

  The morning sun filled the one-room cottage as a colorful curtain billowed in and out from an occasional breeze. The sound of someone mowing their lawn could be heard in the distance. Al was asleep on the bed he had made on the floor, still wearing his tap shoes and costume. Phil was asleep on the couch, still in his costume and clutching his script. There were three bouquets of flowers on the dining area table, one on top of the television and two on the wood stove. The phone rang, walking them, and Phil reached over to answer it. Al sat up in his makeshift bed.
  “They’re back, they’re fine and we don’t have to go on today…” reported Phil, sleepily, after hanging up the phone. 
  “Hallelujah,” Al said.
  “…and there should be a bouquet of white roses, continued Phil, standing up to look around the room.
  “They’re on the table,” said Al, yawning.
  “There’s a card. It says, ‘To the Gentlemen who saved the show, thank you - your director.’”
  “That’s nice,” said Al.
  “It really is,” Phil agreed.

  Al was sitting in the yard, at a small round table, reading one of Phil’s scripts for ‘The Love Boat.’ Phil brought out two cups of coffee, then a plate of Danish and sat down.
  “Did you get to the second act yet?” asked Phil.
  “Yeah.”
  “You see what I mean? It doesn’t work at all.”
  “I have some ideas,” Al said simply, taking a sip of hot coffee, then removing the pencil from behind his ear.
  “Listen, let’s spend the day in town like we planned. We’ll drop off the key and I’ll show you around and we’ll get some dinner before we get on the bus,” said Phil.
  “We can work on the way back,” Al reasoned.
  “Exactly,” agreed Phil.

  The men walked along a tree lined street that led to a main road that brought them to the Village Green. Phil pointed to the Café Espresso where Dylan had once lived and to the shop that sold only rainbows and to the other that only sold clouds. They walked through a patch of woods, about a mile away, and found a beautiful view of the mountains. A grassy slope made the perfect spot for the gentlemen to take a nap and they fell asleep to the sound of the wind gently rustling the surrounding trees.

  The sounds of a platform stage being built woke the men up and the first thing they saw was a group of dancers and musicians preparing to rehearse.
  “Everyone’s welcome on stage tonight,” one of the dancers called out.
  “That’s okay…” Al said.
  “…but thanks,” added Phil, as they waved to the troupe and walked back to town, where they shared a meal before catching the last bus to New York.

Table Readings 03 "Summer Stock in Woodstock (Part I)"

 

TABLE READINGS

"Summer Stock in Woodstock"

Part I

Written by

Heather Rose Dominic

 

   Al got off the bus at the narrow dirt road that led up to the Woodstock Playhouse. He walked towards the theater, alongside the front lawn, where parts of a set were being built.

  Al finally found the stage manager’s desk but noticed that no one was backstage. He heard Phil speaking and stepped into the wings to see his friend and writing partner reading from a script. Phil waved to Al before delivering a joke that ended the scene terribly. There was only silence from the house as Phil waited for any notes. Al took a few steps onto the stage and looked into the dark where he saw the outline of a figure.
  “Okay, I’m going to cut most of that,” yelled the man from the back of the orchestra.
  “Okay,” said Phil taking a pencil to that page in his script.
  “Al?” asked the man.
  “Yeah…Nate?”
  “Yes. You’re visiting the hero before we close?”
  “Is Phil the hero, Nate?”
  “Yeah, you don’t know?”
  “No, but then yes, I am visiting the hero,” Al replied, trying to keep up.
  “Okay, see you guys tonight,” said Nate, laughing as he collected his things.
  Phil walked over to Al and shook his hand heartily.
  “Hey! You took an earlier bus?”
  “Yeah, what the hell was that?”
  “I’m helping Nate out with his new script. There’s still some rough patches so we’ve been using the stage during the day. What’d you think?”
  “You weren’t bad actually, the joke maybe not so much,” said Al.
  “Yeah? Thanks!
  “Why are you the hero, not that I couldn’t imagine…?”
  “…I’ll tell you later, c’mon.”

  They came out of the stage door and took the wooden stairs down to the back of the theater.
  “That place I’ve been renting is nearby, we can walk,” Phil said, pointing to the main road at the bottom of the grassy hill.  
  “So, why are you the hero?” asked Al as they walked from the shade of the tall oak trees into the late morning sun.
  “Oh, I jump started Nate’s car on opening night, after flagging down the only car that was going down the mountain and before placing his call with the backers for the next show.”
  “You did what? I taught you that! You jump started his car?”
  “On opening night!” Phil emphasized.
  “That’s amazing!” said Al who had stopped in his tracks, with outstretched arms.
  “That’s why I’m the hero,” Phil said with arms outstretched as well.
  They both laughed and continued down the sunlit hill.
  “Well, I have three scripts with me, they’re done, I’m happy. You’ll tell me what you think, said Al. “One’s a ‘Taxi’ and two are for ‘The Jefferson’s,” he added.
  “I have one that’s okay, the other needs work, both are ‘Love Boats’," Phil said.
  As Phil was speaking, he thought he heard his name being called.
  “Phil!” shouted Nate from the stage door landing.
  “Is that my name being yelled?” asked Phil.
  “Al! Phil!” Nate continued to yell.
  The men turned around.
  “What?” Phil shouted.
  “Come back,” yelled Nate, waving for them to return.
  Al and Phil jogged up to the bottom of the stairs.
  “Arthur is sick and so is Lloyd and the standby’s in New York,” Nate said to the men below.
  “They’re all not here at the same time? Phil asked, getting a chuckle from Al who realized he had missed hearing Phil’s yogiisms all summer.
  “Lloyd’s the understudy…” Phil explained to Al.
  “…for Arthur who plays Mr. Summerfield, but now the standby’s out…” Nate added.”
  “…who obviously would have covered Lloyd...” continued Phil.
  “…and they were the only ones who could dance…” Nate said, throwing one arm in the air.
  “Where’s the director?” asked Al.
  “Inside, yelling,” Nate said.
  Al and Phil started up the wooden steps.

  “For Christ’s sake, is there anyone who can tap dance in this town of culture and art?” The director shouted into the rafters as the four other cast members were peppering him with questions.
  “This is not looking good,” observed Nate quietly.
  “No,” Phil agreed.
  “I can help someone with some steps, if that helps,” offered Al.
  “You can tap? asked the director, turning around quickly.
  “Yeah,” Al said with a shrug.
  “You tap?” asked Phil.
  “Yes.”
  “You’ve been able to tap all this time?” Phil pressed.
  “Yes, yes, I can tap, but it’s not like this remarkable skill that would have taken us to some higher plateau of success or something.”
  “Well, how well have you been able to tap?” asked Phil incredulously.
  “Listen, you’re going to have to go on,” declared the director. “We don’t have any time, I’ll get you a script and…”
  The director gave Al a once over.
  “…and we’ll throw a great hat on you,” he added.
  “I don’t want to go on,” said Al mater a factually.
  “You have to go on, you can tap for Christ's sake”, Phil said.
  Al looked at Phil without saying a word.
  “Someone get us the tap shoes!” the director yelled out.
  “What about Mr. Summerfield, I know the lines, I’ve known the lines for over a year. I’m the only one who’s ever typed them,” Phil said.
  “Phil, as you know and with all due respect, Mr. Summerfield is a dashing nobleman who was written with a wonderful sense of poise and wit,” explained the director.
  “Well, I am cute and I write jokes, that’s what I do,” Phil reasoned, looking to the others for agreement.
  “I can’t believe this is all happening the day before we close,” the director mumbled to himself.
  “Oh, it’s happening,” confirmed the stage manager drolly.
  “Phil, I’ve never heard you speak above a concerned whisper. You’re telling me you can project to the back of that house and make every woman in the audience fall in love with you by the end of the first act?”
  “Why not?” Phil answered simply.
  “You know all of Summerfield’s lines?” the director continued after taking a deep breath.
  “I know the whole script,” Phil answered bluntly.
  “Okay, listen up, everybody! We’re going to run through the first party scene quickly and get that on its legs before we move on to the big number, then we’ll do a complete run through at double speed and see where we are,” announced the director loudly.
  “Taxi!” the stage manager joked before walking off stage, leaving Al and Phil to smile at the comforting reference.

To Be Continued…

Today, fifty-three years ago, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964

 

 

 

June 29, 1956, President Eisenhower signs the Federal-Aid Highway Act, creating the Interstate Highway System

 
History of the Interstate Highway System 

Stevie Nicks joins Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers in Hyde Park, July 9th

 

Ludovico Einaudi and Greenpeace "Elegy for the Arctic"

savethearctic.org 

greenpeace.org/usa/arctic 

Arctic’s Winter Sea Ice Drops to Its Lowest Recorded Level - New York Times, March 22, 2017

President Barack Obama boards Air Force One, April 9, 2015 (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Friday in D.C., marching alongside the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and indigenous leaders, for treaty rights and to protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline (three images)

Native Nations March & Camp on DC March 7 - 10th, 2017

nativenationsrise.org

Footage from the March on Washington, August 28, 1963

 

Bob Dylan: When the Ship Comes In

 

Bob Dylan and Joan Baez 1963 March on Washington

 

The ACLU has joined 34 tribes in asking a federal court to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline until an environment study can be done

STANDING ROCK SIOUX TRIBE V. UNITED STATES ARMY CORP OF ENGINEERS - AMICUS BRIEF

Read more here.

Read the brief.

Sitting Bull, Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake

Sitting Bull, Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake

URGENT Message from Standing Rock as Police Surround Their Camp

Critical motion charges Trump administration circumvents law and ignores treaty rights

Washington, D.C. – The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe today filed a major legal brief challenging the Trump Administration’s hasty approval of the controversial Dakota Access crude oil pipeline, a project in which the President and his associates have had close financial ties. The Tribe’s summary judgment asks the Court to overturn recent U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permits of the pipeline issued without environmental review or consideration of treaty rights.

The Tribe seeks resolution of these claims on an expedited schedule that would have the issues resolved before the pipeline can go into operation. “President Trump claims he has not received ‘a single phone call’ opposing this widely criticized project.” said Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. “Maybe he should turn the White House phones back on, because millions of people have raised their voices against this dangerous project.”

On Feb. 8, the Trump Administration granted an easement allowing the pipeline to be constructed under the Missouri River half a mile upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. It reverses an earlier decision by the Corps to withhold the easement while the agency completed an environmental review of alternate pipeline routes and the Tribe’s treaty rights. The environmental review, referred to as an environmental impact statement, has been wrongfully terminated mid-process. The lawsuit challenges the Corps’ hasty and unexplained departure from its previous decision, and explains how the Corps ignored the Tribe’s treaty rights and seeks to destroy culturally significant and sacred sites. It also explains how the Corps violated federal statutes requiring close environmental analysis of significant and controversial agency actions.

“In this arbitrary and capricious reversal of course, the Trump Administration is circumventing the law: wholly disregarding the treaty rights of the Standing Rock Sioux and ignoring the legally required environmental review. It isn’t the 1800s anymore – the U.S. government must keep its promises to the Standing Rock Sioux and reject rather than embrace dangerous projects that undercut Treaties,” said Jan Hasselman, the Earthjustice attorney who is representing the Tribe in its challenges against the pipeline.

A copy of the Tribe’s motion asking the Court to vacate and set aside the permits to cross under Lake Oahe is available here.

###

Standing Rock and Native Nations will lead a march in prayer and action in Washington D.C. on March 10th 2017

Global Call to Action //

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Indigenous grassroots leaders call on our allies across the United States and around the world to peacefully March on Washington DC. We ask that you rise in solidarity with the Indigenous peoples of the world whose rights protect Unci Maka (Grandmother Earth) for the future generations of all.

Standing Rock and Native Nations will lead a march in prayer and action in Washington D.C. on March 10th 2017.

For those who cannot march with us, we ask that you take peaceful action at home in your tribal nations, states, cities, towns, villages and provinces.

Who We Are //

We are Tribal Nations and grassroots Indigenous communities rising to the call set forth by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to defend our inherent rights to protect Unci Maka and our water: Mni Wiconi.

March is being organized by the Native Nations Rise Planning Committee

Our Demands //

#TakeTheMeeting // President Trump must meet with tribal leaders to hear why it’s critical that the US government respect tribal rights. This administration must work with us.

#ConsentNotConsultation // Tribal interests cannot continue to be marginalized in favor of the interests of corporations and other governments. Consultation is not enough– we must require consent.

#NativeNationsRise // The Standing Rock movement is bigger than one tribe. It has evolved into a powerful global phenomenon highlighting the necessity to respect Indigenous Nations and their right to protect their homelands, environment and future generations. We are asking our Native relatives from across Turtle Island to rise with us.

[This list of demands will grow, stay tuned]

Calendar of Events

March 7 – 9 // Native leaders and their allies will lobby in the halls of power in Washington DC on behalf of the protection of all Tribes.

March 10 // Native peoples + their allies – gathering in thousands – will gather for a March from the Mall to the White House beginning at 10am. After the march, we will gather for a rally at the Ellipse. It is here we will make our demands to the new administration.

Coretta Scott King and the King Children: Their First Christmas After Dr. King's Death

Remembering virtues: President Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Vice President Biden

Biden Foundation

Statement from Kevin Lewis, Spokesperson to Former President Barack Obama

President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country. In his final official speech as President, he spoke about the important role of citizen and how all Americans have a responsibility to be the guardians of our democracy--not just during an election but every day.

Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.

With regard to comparisons to President Obama's foreign policy decisions, as we've heard before, the President fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.

ACLU Statement: Federal Court Grants Stay in Challenge to Trump Immigration Plan

January 28, 2017

NEW YORK — A federal judge tonight granted the American Civil Liberties Union’s request for a nationwide temporary injunction that will block the deportation of all people stranded in U.S. airports under President Trump’s new Muslim ban. The ACLU and other legal organizations filed a lawsuit on behalf of individuals who were subject to the ban.  The lead plaintiffs have been detained by the U.S. government and threatened with deportation even though they have valid visas to enter the United States. 

Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project who argued the case, said: 

“This ruling preserves the status quo and ensures that people who have been granted permission to be in this country are not illegally removed off U.S. soil.”

ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero, had this reaction to the ruling:

“Clearly the judge understood the possibility for irreparable harm to hundreds of immigrants and lawful visitors to this country. Our courts today worked as they should as bulwarks against government abuse or unconstitutional policies and orders. On week one, Donald Trump suffered his first loss in court.”

The stay order is at: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/darweesh-v-trump-order

The American Civil Liberties Union
National Immigration Law Center
The International Refugee Assistance Project
Yale Law Clinic 

4.1 Miles (2017 Academy Award nominee for Documentary Short Subject)

A coast guard captain on a small Greek island is suddenly charged with saving thousands of refugees from drowning at sea. (New York Times)  

Directed by Daphne Matziaraki  

Read the story here: nyti.ms/2dwbDfb 

"...Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."

Excerpt from New York: A Documentary Film, directed by Ric Burns

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Emma Lazarus

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders 

The UN Refugee Agency 

Mary Tyler Moore December 29, 1936 - January 25, 2017

 

What's Next from Barack and Michelle Obama

obama.org 

From the National Archives: Transcriptions of the Constitution, the 1789 Joint Resolution of Congress Proposing 12 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and Amendments 11-27

The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription

Note: The following text is a transcription of the Constitution as it was inscribed by Jacob Shallus on parchment (the document on display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum.) The spelling and punctuation reflects the original.

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript

---

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Article. I.

Section. 1.

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Section. 2.

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.

The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.

Section. 3.

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.

No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.

The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

Section. 4.

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.

Section. 5.

Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.

Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.

Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

Section. 6.

The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.

Section. 7.

All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.

Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill.

Section. 8.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;—And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Section. 9.

The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.

Section. 10.

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

Article. II.

Section. 1.

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Section. 2.

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

Section. 3.

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

Section. 4.

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Article III.

Section. 1.

The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.

Section. 2.

The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;—to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;—to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;—to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;—to Controversies between two or more States;— between a State and Citizens of another State,—between Citizens of different States,—between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.

In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.

The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed.

Section. 3.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

Article. IV.

Section. 1.

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.

Section. 2.

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.

No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.

Section. 3.

New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.

Section. 4.

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.

Article. V.

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

Article. VI.

All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Article. VII.

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.

The Word, "the," being interlined between the seventh and eighth Lines of the first Page, The Word "Thirty" being partly written on an Erazure in the fifteenth Line of the first Page, The Words "is tried" being interlined between the thirty second and thirty third Lines of the first Page and the Word "the" being interlined between the forty third and forty fourth Lines of the second Page.

Attest William Jackson Secretary

done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independance of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names,

G°. Washington
Presidt and deputy from Virginia

Delaware

Geo: Read
Gunning Bedford jun
John Dickinson
Richard Bassett
Jaco: Broom

Maryland

James McHenry
Dan of St Thos. Jenifer
Danl. Carroll

Virginia

John Blair
James Madison Jr.

North Carolina

Wm. Blount
Richd. Dobbs Spaight
Hu Williamson

South Carolina

J. Rutledge
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Charles Pinckney
Pierce Butler

Georgia

William Few
Abr Baldwin

New Hampshire

John Langdon
Nicholas Gilman

Massachusetts

Nathaniel Gorham
Rufus King

Connecticut

Wm. Saml. Johnson
Roger Sherman

New York

Alexander Hamilton

New Jersey

Wil: Livingston
David Brearley
Wm. Paterson
Jona: Dayton

Pennsylvania

B Franklin
Thomas Mifflin
Robt. Morris
Geo. Clymer
Thos. FitzSimons
Jared Ingersoll
James Wilson
Gouv Morris

For biographies of the non-signing delegates to the Constitutional Convention, see the  Founding Fathers page.

 

The Bill of Rights: A Transcription

Note: The following text is a transcription of the enrolled original of the Joint Resolution of Congress proposing the Bill of Rights, which is on permanent display in the Rotunda at the National Archives Museum. The spelling and punctuation reflects the original.

---

On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States proposed 12 amendments to the Constitution. The 1789 Joint Resolution of Congress proposing the amendments is on display in the Rotunda in the National Archives Museum. Ten of the proposed 12 amendments were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures on December 15, 1791. The ratified Articles (Articles 3–12) constitute the first 10 amendments of the Constitution, or the U.S. Bill of Rights. In 1992, 203 years after it was proposed, Article 2 was ratified as the 27th Amendment to the Constitution. Article 1 was never ratified.

Transcription of the 1789 Joint Resolution of Congress Proposing 12 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution

Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.

THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.

RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.

ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

Article the first... After the first enumeration required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred; after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons.

Article the second... No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

Article the third... Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Article the fourth... A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Article the fifth... No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Article the sixth... The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Article the seventh... No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Article the eighth... In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Article the ninth... In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Article the tenth... Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Article the eleventh... The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Article the twelfth... The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

ATTEST,

Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, Speaker of the House of Representatives
John Adams, Vice-President of the United States, and President of the Senate
John Beckley, Clerk of the House of Representatives.
Sam. A Otis Secretary of the Senate

The U.S. Bill of Rights

The Preamble to The Bill of Rights

Congress of the United States
begun and held at the City of New-York, on
Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.

THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.

RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.

ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

Note: The following text is a transcription of the first ten amendments to the Constitution in their original form. These amendments were ratified December 15, 1791, and form what is known as the "Bill of Rights."

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Amendment VII

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The Constitution: Amendments 11-27

AMENDMENT XI

Passed by Congress March 4, 1794. Ratified February 7, 1795.

Note: Article III, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by amendment 11. The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.

AMENDMENT XII

Passed by Congress December 9, 1803. Ratified June 15, 1804.

Note: A portion of Article II, section 1 of the Constitution was superseded by the 12th amendment. The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; -- the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; -- The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. [And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. --]* The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. *Superseded by section 3 of the 20th amendment.

AMENDMENT XIII

Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865.

Note: A portion of Article IV, section 2, of the Constitution was superseded by the 13th amendment.

Section 1.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

AMENDMENT XIV

Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.

Note: Article I, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 2 of the 14th amendment.

Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age,* and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5.

The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

*Changed by section 1 of the 26th amendment.

AMENDMENT XV

Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 1870.

Section 1.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude--

Section 2.

The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

AMENDMENT XVI

Passed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratified February 3, 1913.

Note: Article I, section 9, of the Constitution was modified by amendment 16.

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

AMENDMENT XVII

Passed by Congress May 13, 1912. Ratified April 8, 1913.

Note: Article I, section 3, of the Constitution was modified by the 17th amendment.

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

AMENDMENT XVIII

Passed by Congress December 18, 1917. Ratified January 16, 1919. Repealed by amendment 21.

Section 1.

After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Section 2.

The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Section 3.

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

AMENDMENT XIX

Passed by Congress June 4, 1919. Ratified August 18, 1920.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

AMENDMENT XX

Passed by Congress March 2, 1932. Ratified January 23, 1933.

Note: Article I, section 4, of the Constitution was modified by section 2 of this amendment. In addition, a portion of the 12th amendment was superseded by section 3.

Section 1.

The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

Section 2.

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Section 3.

If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

Section 4.

The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

Section 5.

Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.

Section 6.

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.

AMENDMENT XXI

Passed by Congress February 20, 1933. Ratified December 5, 1933.

Section 1.

The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2.

The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3.

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

AMENDMENT XXII

Passed by Congress March 21, 1947. Ratified February 27, 1951.

Section 1.

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2.

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

AMENDMENT XXIII

Passed by Congress June 16, 1960. Ratified March 29, 1961.

Section 1.

The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:

A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

Section 2.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

AMENDMENT XXIV

Passed by Congress August 27, 1962. Ratified January 23, 1964.

Section 1.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

Section 2.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

AMENDMENT XXV

Passed by Congress July 6, 1965. Ratified February 10, 1967.

Note: Article II, section 1, of the Constitution was affected by the 25th amendment.

Section 1.

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2.

Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3.

Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4.

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

AMENDMENT XXVI

Passed by Congress March 23, 1971. Ratified July 1, 1971.

Note: Amendment 14, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 1 of the 26th amendment.

Section 1.

The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

Section 2.

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

AMENDMENT XXVII

Originally proposed Sept. 25, 1789. Ratified May 7, 1992.

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

A Concert At The White House, Pablo Casals, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Alexander Schneider, 1961

Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

Fellow Countrymen:

At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

George Washington's Farewell Address, 1796

Friends and Citizens:

The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant, and the time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.

The acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to which your suffrages have twice called me have been a uniform sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty and to a deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly hoped that it would have been much earlier in my power, consistently with motives which I was not at liberty to disregard, to return to that retirement from which I had been reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea.

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal, no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with the sentiment of duty or propriety, and am persuaded, whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that, in the present circumstances of our country, you will not disapprove my determination to retire.

The impressions with which I first undertook the arduous trust were explained on the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed towards the organization and administration of the government the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. Not unconscious in the outset of the inferiority of my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome. Satisfied that if any circumstances have given peculiar value to my services, they were temporary, I have the consolation to believe that, while choice and prudence invite me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.

In looking forward to the moment which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved country for the many honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast confidence with which it has supported me; and for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering, though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that under circumstances in which the passions, agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often discouraging, in situations in which not unfrequently want of success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected. Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution, which is the work of your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it.

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger, natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people. These will be offered to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget, as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion.

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts, no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment.

The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together; the independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and joint efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.

But these considerations, however powerfully they address themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by those which apply more immediately to your interest. Here every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole.

The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds in the productions of the latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of manufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse, benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular navigation invigorated; and, while it contributes, in different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and in the progressive improvement of interior communications by land and water, will more and more find a valuable vent for the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to its growth and comfort, and, what is perhaps of still greater consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight, influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the West can hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connection with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.

While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same governments, which their own rival ships alone would be sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances, attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. In this sense it is that your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.

These considerations speak a persuasive language to every reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of the Union as a primary object of patriotic desire. Is there a doubt whether a common government can embrace so large a sphere? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation in such a case were criminal. We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands.

In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. The inhabitants of our Western country have lately had a useful lesson on this head; they have seen, in the negotiation by the Executive, and in the unanimous ratification by the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the universal satisfaction at that event, throughout the United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the suspicions propagated among them of a policy in the General Government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their interests in regard to the Mississippi; they have been witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that with Great Britain, and that with Spain, which secure to them everything they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations, towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the Union by which they were procured ? Will they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever them from their brethren and connect them with aliens?

To the efficacy and permanency of your Union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliance, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be invited, remember that time and habit are at least as necessary to fix the true character of governments as of other human institutions; that experience is the surest standard by which to test the real tendency of the existing constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, especially, that for the efficient management of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the enterprises of faction, to confine each member of the society within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.

I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.

There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.

It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?

Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it, avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertion in time of peace to discharge the debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should co-operate. To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that towards the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid construction of the conduct of the government in making it, and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate.

Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it - It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it ? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue ? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible by its vices?

In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations, has been the victim.

So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils. Such an attachment of a small or weak towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.

The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.

Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government. the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?

It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.

Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.

Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing (with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them) conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish; that they will control the usual current of the passions, or prevent our nation from running the course which has hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter myself that they may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been dictated.

How far in the discharge of my official duties I have been guided by the principles which have been delineated, the public records and other evidences of my conduct must witness to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least believed myself to be guided by them.

In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my proclamation of the twenty-second of April, I793, is the index of my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that of your representatives in both houses of Congress, the spirit of that measure has continually governed me, uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.

After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance, and firmness.

The considerations which respect the right to hold this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail. I will only observe that, according to my understanding of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted by all.

The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without anything more, from the obligation which justice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards other nations.

The inducements of interest for observing that conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and experience. With me a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption to that degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.

Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.

Relying on its kindness in this as in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so natural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself and his progenitors for several generations, I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.

G. Washington

President Obama's Farewell Address

It's good to be home. My fellow Americans, Michelle and I have been so touched by all the well-wishes we've received over the past few weeks. But tonight it's my turn to say thanks. Whether we've seen eye-to-eye or rarely agreed at all, my conversations with you, the American people - in living rooms and schools; at farms and on factory floors; at diners and on distant outposts - are what have kept me honest, kept me inspired, and kept me going. Every day, I learned from you. You made me a better President, and you made me a better man.

I first came to Chicago when I was in my early twenties, still trying to figure out who I was; still searching for a purpose to my life. It was in neighborhoods not far from here where I began working with church groups in the shadows of closed steel mills. It was on these streets where I witnessed the power of faith, and the quiet dignity of working people in the face of struggle and loss. This is where I learned that change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged, and come together to demand it.

After eight years as your President, I still believe that. And it's not just my belief. It's the beating heart of our American idea - our bold experiment in self-government.

It's the conviction that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It's the insistence that these rights, while self-evident, have never been self-executing; that We, the People, through the instrument of our democracy, can form a more perfect union.

This is the great gift our Founders gave us. The freedom to chase our individual dreams through our sweat, toil, and imagination - and the imperative to strive together as well, to achieve a greater good.

For 240 years, our nation's call to citizenship has given work and purpose to each new generation. It's what led patriots to choose republic over tyranny, pioneers to trek west, slaves to brave that makeshift railroad to freedom. It's what pulled immigrants and refugees across oceans and the Rio Grande, pushed women to reach for the ballot, powered workers to organize. It's why GIs gave their lives at Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima; Iraq and Afghanistan - and why men and women from Selma to Stonewall were prepared to give theirs as well.

So that's what we mean when we say America is exceptional. Not that our nation has been flawless from the start, but that we have shown the capacity to change, and make life better for those who follow.

Yes, our progress has been uneven. The work of democracy has always been hard, contentious and sometimes bloody. For every two steps forward, it often feels we take one step back. But the long sweep of America has been defined by forward motion, a constant widening of our founding creed to embrace all, and not just some.

If I had told you eight years ago that America would reverse a great recession, reboot our auto industry, and unleash the longest stretch of job creation in our history . if I had told you that we would open up a new chapter with the Cuban people, shut down Iran's nuclear weapons program without firing a shot, and take out the mastermind of 9/11 . if I had told you that we would win marriage equality, and secure the right to health insurance for another 20 million of our fellow citizens - you might have said our sights were set a little too high.

But that's what we did. That's what you did. You were the change. You answered people's hopes, and because of you, by almost every measure, America is a better, stronger place than it was when we started.

In ten days, the world will witness a hallmark of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power from one freely-elected president to the next. I committed to President-Elect Trump that my administration would ensure the smoothest possible transition, just as President Bush did for me. Because it's up to all of us to make sure our government can help us meet the many challenges we still face.

We have what we need to do so. After all, we remain the wealthiest, most powerful, and most respected nation on Earth. Our youth and drive, our diversity and openness, our boundless capacity for risk and reinvention mean that the future should be ours.

But that potential will be realized only if our democracy works. Only if our politics reflects the decency of the people. Only if all of us, regardless of our party affiliation or particular interest, help restore the sense of common purpose that we so badly need right now.

That's what I want to focus on tonight - the state of our democracy.

Understand, democracy does not require uniformity. Our founders quarreled and compromised, and expected us to do the same. But they knew that democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity - the idea that for all our outward differences, we are all in this together; that we rise or fall as one.

There have been moments throughout our history that threatened to rupture that solidarity. The beginning of this century has been one of those times. A shrinking world, growing inequality; demographic change and the specter of terrorism - these forces haven't just tested our security and prosperity, but our democracy as well. And how we meet these challenges to our democracy will determine our ability to educate our kids, and create good jobs, and protect our homeland.

In other words, it will determine our future.

Our democracy won't work without a sense that everyone has economic opportunity. Today, the economy is growing again; wages, incomes, home values, and retirement accounts are rising again; poverty is falling again. The wealthy are paying a fairer share of taxes even as the stock market shatters records. The unemployment rate is near a ten-year low. The uninsured rate has never, ever been lower. Health care costs are rising at the slowest rate in fifty years. And if anyone can put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we've made to our health care system - that covers as many people at less cost - I will publicly support it.

That, after all, is why we serve - to make people's lives better, not worse.

But for all the real progress we've made, we know it's not enough. Our economy doesn't work as well or grow as fast when a few prosper at the expense of a growing middle class. But stark inequality is also corrosive to our democratic principles. While the top one percent has amassed a bigger share of wealth and income, too many families, in inner cities and rural counties, have been left behind - the laid-off factory worker; the waitress and health care worker who struggle to pay the bills - convinced that the game is fixed against them, that their government only serves the interests of the powerful - a recipe for more cynicism and polarization in our politics.

There are no quick fixes to this long-term trend. I agree that our trade should be fair and not just free. But the next wave of economic dislocation won't come from overseas. It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes many good, middle-class jobs obsolete.

And so we must forge a new social compact - to guarantee all our kids the education they need; to give workers the power to unionize for better wages; to update the social safety net to reflect the way we live now and make more reforms to the tax code so corporations and individuals who reap the most from the new economy don't avoid their obligations to the country that's made their success possible. We can argue about how to best achieve these goals. But we can't be complacent about the goals themselves. For if we don't create opportunity for all people, the disaffection and division that has stalled our progress will only sharpen in years to come.

There's a second threat to our democracy - one as old as our nation itself. After my election, there was talk of a post-racial America. Such a vision, however well-intended, was never realistic. For race remains a potent and often divisive force in our society. I've lived long enough to know that race relations are better than they were ten, or twenty, or thirty years ago - you can see it not just in statistics, but in the attitudes of young Americans across the political spectrum.

But we're not where we need to be. All of us have more work to do. After all, if every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hardworking white middle class and undeserving minorities, then workers of all shades will be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves. If we decline to invest in the children of immigrants, just because they don't look like us, we diminish the prospects of our own children - because those brown kids will represent a larger share of America's workforce. And our economy doesn't have to be a zero-sum game. Last year, incomes rose for all races, all age groups, for men and for women.

Going forward, we must uphold laws against discrimination - in hiring, in housing, in education and the criminal justice system. That's what our Constitution and highest ideals require. But laws alone won't be enough. Hearts must change. If our democracy is to work in this increasingly diverse nation, each one of us must try to heed the advice of one of the great characters in American fiction, Atticus Finch, who said "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

For blacks and other minorities, it means tying our own struggles for justice to the challenges that a lot of people in this country face - the refugee, the immigrant, the rural poor, the transgender American, and also the middle-aged white man who from the outside may seem like he's got all the advantages, but who's seen his world upended by economic, cultural, and technological change.

For white Americans, it means acknowledging that the effects of slavery and Jim Crow didn't suddenly vanish in the '60s; that when minority groups voice discontent, they're not just engaging in reverse racism or practicing political correctness; that when they wage peaceful protest, they're not demanding special treatment, but the equal treatment our Founders promised.

For native-born Americans, it means reminding ourselves that the stereotypes about immigrants today were said, almost word for word, about the Irish, Italians, and Poles. America wasn't weakened by the presence of these newcomers; they embraced this nation's creed, and it was strengthened.

So regardless of the station we occupy; we have to try harder; to start with the premise that each of our fellow citizens loves this country just as much as we do; that they value hard work and family like we do; that their children are just as curious and hopeful and worthy of love as our own.

None of this is easy. For too many of us, it's become safer to retreat into our own bubbles, whether in our neighborhoods or college campuses or places of worship or our social media feeds, surrounded by people who look like us and share the same political outlook and never challenge our assumptions. The rise of naked partisanship, increasing economic and regional stratification, the splintering of our media into a channel for every taste - all this makes this great sorting seem natural, even inevitable. And increasingly, we become so secure in our bubbles that we accept only information, whether true or not, that fits our opinions, instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that's out there.

This trend represents a third threat to our democracy. Politics is a battle of ideas; in the course of a healthy debate, we'll prioritize different goals, and the different means of reaching them. But without some common baseline of facts; without a willingness to admit new information, and concede that your opponent is making a fair point, and that science and reason matter, we'll keep talking past each other, making common ground and compromise impossible.

Isn't that part of what makes politics so dispiriting? How can elected officials rage about deficits when we propose to spend money on preschool for kids, but not when we're cutting taxes for corporations? How do we excuse ethical lapses in our own party, but pounce when the other party does the same thing? It's not just dishonest, this selective sorting of the facts; it's self-defeating. Because as my mother used to tell me, reality has a way of catching up with you.

Take the challenge of climate change. In just eight years, we've halved our dependence on foreign oil, doubled our renewable energy, and led the world to an agreement that has the promise to save this planet. But without bolder action, our children won't have time to debate the existence of climate change; they'll be busy dealing with its effects: environmental disasters, economic disruptions, and waves of climate refugees seeking sanctuary.

Now, we can and should argue about the best approach to the problem. But to simply deny the problem not only betrays future generations; it betrays the essential spirit of innovation and practical problem-solving that guided our Founders.

It's that spirit, born of the Enlightenment, that made us an economic powerhouse - the spirit that took flight at Kitty Hawk and Cape Canaveral; the spirit that that cures disease and put a computer in every pocket.

It's that spirit - a faith in reason, and enterprise, and the primacy of right over might, that allowed us to resist the lure of fascism and tyranny during the Great Depression, and build a post-World War II order with other democracies, an order based not just on military power or national affiliations but on principles - the rule of law, human rights, freedoms of religion, speech, assembly, and an independent press.

That order is now being challenged - first by violent fanatics who claim to speak for Islam; more recently by autocrats in foreign capitals who see free markets, open democracies, and civil society itself as a threat to their power. The peril each poses to our democracy is more far-reaching than a car bomb or a missile. It represents the fear of change; the fear of people who look or speak or pray differently; a contempt for the rule of law that holds leaders accountable; an intolerance of dissent and free thought; a belief that the sword or the gun or the bomb or propaganda machine is the ultimate arbiter of what's true and what's right.

Because of the extraordinary courage of our men and women in uniform, and the intelligence officers, law enforcement, and diplomats who support them, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland these past eight years; and although Boston and Orlando remind us of how dangerous radicalization can be, our law enforcement agencies are more effective and vigilant than ever. We've taken out tens of thousands of terrorists - including Osama bin Laden. The global coalition we're leading against ISIL has taken out their leaders, and taken away about half their territory. ISIL will be destroyed, and no one who threatens America will ever be safe. To all who serve, it has been the honor of my lifetime to be your Commander-in-Chief.

But protecting our way of life requires more than our military. Democracy can buckle when we give in to fear. So just as we, as citizens, must remain vigilant against external aggression, we must guard against a weakening of the values that make us who we are. That's why, for the past eight years, I've worked to put the fight against terrorism on a firm legal footing. That's why we've ended torture, worked to close Gitmo, and reform our laws governing surveillance to protect privacy and civil liberties. That's why I reject discrimination against Muslim Americans. That's why we cannot withdraw from global fights - to expand democracy, and human rights, women's rights, and LGBT rights - no matter how imperfect our efforts, no matter how expedient ignoring such values may seem. For the fight against extremism and intolerance and sectarianism are of a piece with the fight against authoritarianism and nationalist aggression. If the scope of freedom and respect for the rule of law shrinks around the world, the likelihood of war within and between nations increases, and our own freedoms will eventually be threatened.

So let's be vigilant, but not afraid. ISIL will try to kill innocent people. But they cannot defeat America unless we betray our Constitution and our principles in the fight. Rivals like Russia or China cannot match our influence around the world - unless we give up what we stand for, and turn ourselves into just another big country that bullies smaller neighbors.

Which brings me to my final point - our democracy is threatened whenever we take it for granted. All of us, regardless of party, should throw ourselves into the task of rebuilding our democratic institutions. When voting rates are some of the lowest among advanced democracies, we should make it easier, not harder, to vote. When trust in our institutions is low, we should reduce the corrosive influence of money in our politics, and insist on the principles of transparency and ethics in public service. When Congress is dysfunctional, we should draw our districts to encourage politicians to cater to common sense and not rigid extremes.

And all of this depends on our participation; on each of us accepting the responsibility of citizenship, regardless of which way the pendulum of power swings.

Our Constitution is a remarkable, beautiful gift. But it's really just a piece of parchment. It has no power on its own. We, the people, give it power - with our participation, and the choices we make. Whether or not we stand up for our freedoms. Whether or not we respect and enforce the rule of law. America is no fragile thing. But the gains of our long journey to freedom are not assured.

In his own farewell address, George Washington wrote that self-government is the underpinning of our safety, prosperity, and liberty, but "from different causes and from different quarters much pains will be taken.to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth;" that we should preserve it with "jealous anxiety;" that we should reject "the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties" that make us one.

We weaken those ties when we allow our political dialogue to become so corrosive that people of good character are turned off from public service; so coarse with rancor that Americans with whom we disagree are not just misguided, but somehow malevolent. We weaken those ties when we define some of us as more American than others; when we write off the whole system as inevitably corrupt, and blame the leaders we elect without examining our own role in electing them.

It falls to each of us to be those anxious, jealous guardians of our democracy; to embrace the joyous task we've been given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours. Because for all our outward differences, we all share the same proud title: Citizen.

Ultimately, that's what our democracy demands. It needs you. Not just when there's an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime. If you're tired of arguing with strangers on the internet, try to talk with one in real life. If something needs fixing, lace up your shoes and do some organizing. If you're disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself. Show up. Dive in. Persevere. Sometimes you'll win. Sometimes you'll lose. Presuming a reservoir of goodness in others can be a risk, and there will be times when the process disappoints you. But for those of us fortunate enough to have been a part of this work, to see it up close, let me tell you, it can energize and inspire. And more often than not, your faith in America - and in Americans - will be confirmed.

Mine sure has been. Over the course of these eight years, I've seen the hopeful faces of young graduates and our newest military officers. I've mourned with grieving families searching for answers, and found grace in Charleston church. I've seen our scientists help a paralyzed man regain his sense of touch, and our wounded warriors walk again. I've seen our doctors and volunteers rebuild after earthquakes and stop pandemics in their tracks. I've seen the youngest of children remind us of our obligations to care for refugees, to work in peace, and above all to look out for each other.

That faith I placed all those years ago, not far from here, in the power of ordinary Americans to bring about change - that faith has been rewarded in ways I couldn't possibly have imagined. I hope yours has, too. Some of you here tonight or watching at home were there with us in 2004, in 2008, in 2012 - and maybe you still can't believe we pulled this whole thing off.

You're not the only ones. Michelle - for the past twenty-five years, you've been not only my wife and mother of my children, but my best friend. You took on a role you didn't ask for and made it your own with grace and grit and style and good humor. You made the White House a place that belongs to everybody. And a new generation sets its sights higher because it has you as a role model. You've made me proud. You've made the country proud.

Malia and Sasha, under the strangest of circumstances, you have become two amazing young women, smart and beautiful, but more importantly, kind and thoughtful and full of passion. You wore the burden of years in the spotlight so easily. Of all that I've done in my life, I'm most proud to be your dad.

To Joe Biden, the scrappy kid from Scranton who became Delaware's favorite son: you were the first choice I made as a nominee, and the best. Not just because you have been a great Vice President, but because in the bargain, I gained a brother. We love you and Jill like family, and your friendship has been one of the great joys of our life.

To my remarkable staff: For eight years - and for some of you, a whole lot more - I've drawn from your energy, and tried to reflect back what you displayed every day: heart, and character, and idealism. I've watched you grow up, get married, have kids, and start incredible new journeys of your own. Even when times got tough and frustrating, you never let Washington get the better of you. The only thing that makes me prouder than all the good we've done is the thought of all the remarkable things you'll achieve from here.

And to all of you out there - every organizer who moved to an unfamiliar town and kind family who welcomed them in, every volunteer who knocked on doors, every young person who cast a ballot for the first time, every American who lived and breathed the hard work of change - you are the best supporters and organizers anyone could hope for, and I will forever be grateful. Because yes, you changed the world.

That's why I leave this stage tonight even more optimistic about this country than I was when we started. Because I know our work has not only helped so many Americans; it has inspired so many Americans - especially so many young people out there - to believe you can make a difference; to hitch your wagon to something bigger than yourselves. This generation coming up - unselfish, altruistic, creative, patriotic - I've seen you in every corner of the country. You believe in a fair, just, inclusive America; you know that constant change has been America's hallmark, something not to fear but to embrace, and you are willing to carry this hard work of democracy forward. You'll soon outnumber any of us, and I believe as a result that the future is in good hands.

My fellow Americans, it has been the honor of my life to serve you. I won't stop; in fact, I will be right there with you, as a citizen, for all my days that remain. For now, whether you're young or young at heart, I do have one final ask of you as your President - the same thing I asked when you took a chance on me eight years ago.

I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change - but in yours.

I am asking you to hold fast to that faith written into our founding documents; that idea whispered by slaves and abolitionists; that spirit sung by immigrants and homesteaders and those who marched for justice; that creed reaffirmed by those who planted flags from foreign battlefields to the surface of the moon; a creed at the core of every American whose story is not yet written:

Yes We Can.

Yes We Did.

Yes We Can.

Thank you. God bless you. And may God continue to bless the United States of America.

Canyon, Los Angeles 2016

Canyon 1, Los Angeles  2016

Canyon 2, Los Angeles  2016

Canyon 3, Los Angeles  2016

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s Statement on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Decision to Not Grant Easement

Cannon Ball, N.D.— The department of the Army will not approve an easement that will allow the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe. The following statement was released by Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II.

“Today, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it will not be granting the easement to cross Lake Oahe for the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline. Instead, the Corps will be undertaking an environmental impact statement to look at possible alternative routes. We wholeheartedly support the decision of the administration and commend with the utmost gratitude the courage it took on the part of President Obama, the Army Corps, the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior to take steps to correct the course of history and to do the right thing.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and all of Indian Country will be forever grateful to the Obama Administration for this historic decision.

We want to thank everyone who played a role in advocating for this cause. We thank the tribal youth who initiated this movement. We thank the millions of people around the globe who expressed support for our cause. We thank the thousands of people who came to the camps to support us, and the tens of thousands who donated time, talent, and money to our efforts to stand against this pipeline in the name of protecting our water. We especially thank all of the other tribal nations and jurisdictions who stood in solidarity with us, and we stand ready to stand with you if and when your people are in need.

Throughout this effort I have stressed the importance of acting at all times in a peaceful and prayerful manner – and that is how we will respond to this decision. With this decision we look forward to being able to return home and spend the winter with our families and loved ones, many of whom have sacrificed as well. We look forward to celebrating in wopila, in thanks, in the coming days.

We hope that Kelcey Warren, Governor Dalrymple, and the incoming Trump administration respect this decision and understand the complex process that led us to this point. When it comes to infrastructure development in Indian Country and with respect to treaty lands, we must strive to work together to reach decisions that reflect the multifaceted considerations of tribes.

Treaties are paramount law and must be respected, and we welcome dialogue on how to continue to honor that moving forward. We are not opposed to energy independence, economic development, or national security concerns but we must ensure that these decisions are made with the considerations of our Indigenous peoples.

To our local law enforcement, I hope that we can work together to heal our relationship as we all work to protect the lives and safety of our people. I recognize the extreme stress that the situation caused and look forward to a future that reflects more mutual understanding and respect.

Again, we are deeply appreciative that the Obama Administration took the time and effort to genuinely consider the broad spectrum of tribal concerns. In a system that has continuously been stacked against us from every angle, it took tremendous courage to take a new approach to our nation-to-nation relationship, and we will be forever grateful.

Native American Rights Fund Joins Coalition of Native Organizations Calling on President Obama to Prevent Violence and Halt Violations at Standing Rock

From the Native American Rights Fund:

December 2, 2016

Today the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) joined over thirty other Native organizations to call on President Obama to prevent violence and halt human and civil rights violations at Standing Rock.

The letter begins:

“The hundreds of Tribal Nations from across Indian Country, who are represented through the collective membership and voices of the undersigned organizations, reach out to you today to express our serious concerns regarding the recent activities occurring at the water protector campsites. We believe strongly that the recent tactics and excessive force employed by the police against the water protectors is an outright violation of their human and civil rights.”

Read the full letter. 

Page 1 of 5

Missing Garry Shandling today and during these dark times

November 29, 1949 – March 24, 2016