[EDIT]Translated Declaration of Independence - I believe this is needed...

What spurred me to do this was reading an article about the Indiana courts ruling to allow police officers to violate the illegal search and seizure amendment whenever they please. Article here: www.foxnews.com...

I began to think about how people don't understand these rights, and how a lot of it may be due simply to the wording used in the good olde days, so I decided to "translate" the most important piece of American writing.

Feel free to modify, add input, or share with anyone. In this day and age where our education system is so horrible people can barely type full words without using txt speak, maybe, just maybe a more modern translation of this will wake a few people up to the abuses of our government. Heck I'd like this to come back around to me as a viral posting on Facebook.


ORIGINAL

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are bearable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government."


MY INTERPRETATION

"We establish these facts to be recognized by everyone, all men are created equal, and they are given by their Creator certain rights that cannot be taken away, among these are Life, Freedom, and the pursuit of Happiness. To ensure these rights, governments are created by Men, and are provided their powers from the consent of the citizens. If whenever any form of govenment becomes destructive to any of these rights, it is the right of the people to change or get rid of it, and to create a new government, at its foundation being the ideas, and arranging its powers in a way that to them will be most likely to ensure the safety and happiness of the citizens. Caution should be used so that long established governments should not be changed for un-important or short-lived causes; because of that, all experience has shown that mankind is more likely to suffer, while the evils are bearable than to correct these evils by getting rid of the laws and processes that they are used to. However, when a long train of abuses and seizures of these rights cleary demonstrates a goal to rule them under absolute tyrrany, it is their right, it is their duty, to get rid of such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. This has been the patient tolerance of these United States of America; and it is now necessary because of this repression for the citizens to alter their former system of government."

Thanks op, I myself can understand the original, but I am sure others will get more out of the "Translated" version.

Its sad, but necessary that you had to translate something from english, back to english for some people to understand, if not get more out of it.

Maybe we need the one you translated into bad english, from "We establish these facts to be recognized by everyone" to "deez facts be obvious, yo."

Originally posted by sicksonezer0
Thanks op, I myself can understand the original, but I am sure others will get more out of the "Translated" version.

Its sad, but necessary that you had to translate something from english, back to english for some people to understand, if not get more out of it.

Maybe we need the one you translated into bad english, from "We establish these facts to be recognized by everyone" to "deez facts be obvious, yo."

edit on 28-10-2011 by sicksonezer0 because: (no reason given)

Man you just gave me an idea. Who wants to contribute a "hood" version, a redneck version, a surfer version, a hippie stoner version... Any version you can think off. We can put them all together and make this viral!

And yes it is sad to have to do an English to English translation, but the meanings of words do change over time, the educated then were more eloquent then the educated now.

Originally posted by sicksonezer0
Its sad, but necessary that you had to translate something from english, back to english for some people to understand, if not get more out of it.

It's not sad at all. The thing was written over 200 years ago. Languages change at a known rate. Go from the DI back to Shakespearian English, and you'd see just as much a jump in the language.

reply to post by WhiteSpectralMirror


Good example of why we need to update these things. You can argue over the correctness of that translation all day, and they do just that. In the end it's been twisted far beyond what it was supposed to mean.

Originally posted by WhiteSpectralMirror

Originally posted by sicksonezer0
Thanks op, I myself can understand the original, but I am sure others will get more out of the "Translated" version.

Its sad, but necessary that you had to translate something from english, back to english for some people to understand, if not get more out of it.

Maybe we need the one you translated into bad english, from "We establish these facts to be recognized by everyone" to "deez facts be obvious, yo."

edit on 28-10-2011 by sicksonezer0 because: (no reason given)

Man you just gave me an idea. Who wants to contribute a "hood" version, a redneck version, a surfer version, a hippie stoner version... Any version you can think off. We can put them all together and make this viral!

And yes it is sad to have to do an English to English translation, but the meanings of words do change over time, the educated then were more eloquent then the educated now.

Im down with contributing to a hood version.

reply to post by WhiteSpectralMirror


Exactly who are we declaring our independence from???


Is England oppressing us again that we have to re-define what our grievences are against them???

Because you do know that is who the Declaration of Independence was addressed to...right?

reply to post by CynicalDrivel


Im not denying that, I bought a book printed in the late 1800's, it was a small book about spirituality, and the how things are written are interesting, and almost sad, because its elegance that has long since passed. Even penmanship has taken a nosedive since then, mine included

reply to post by WhiteSpectralMirror


Now, if we can only get them to put your "laymans" version in video games...
Most people would "skip this add" anyway.

Originally posted by OutKast Searcher
reply to post by WhiteSpectralMirror

 

Exactly who are we declaring our independence from???


Is England oppressing us again that we have to re-define what our grievences are against them???

Because you do know that is who the Declaration of Independence was addressed to...right?

This was not to declare independence, this translation was made by me because I feel that a lot of people have no clue what the founding fathers were talking about when they wrote the original. I am not saying I know more than them or even as much, my point is that the average person today would really have trouble comprehending what is being said in these documents.

True story, I had 2 people in 1 day ask me what a "merchant" was when signing the merchant copy of a credit card receipt. If your average person has this much trouble with daily words, how can we expect them to fully understand things such as the Declaration and Constitution?

Originally posted by WhiteSpectralMirror
In this day and age where our education system is so horrible

You rip on the education system, yet display almost no grasp of what you've posted. Bravo

en.wikipedia.org...

The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire.

I'm guessing what you REALLY meant was the Bill of Rights?

en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by OutKast Searcher
reply to post by WhiteSpectralMirror

 

Exactly who are we declaring our independence from???

Is England oppressing us again that we have to re-define what our grievences are against them???

Because you do know that is who the Declaration of Independence was addressed to...right?

Are you kidding? Thats the beauty of the document. It declares the right to be free from all oppression.
The right to be "in" dependent of, not "de"pendent on some ruling class, governing system, church, bully, whatever, wherever.

Originally posted by negativenihil

Originally posted by WhiteSpectralMirror
In this day and age where our education system is so horrible

You rip on the education system, yet display almost no grasp of what you've posted. Bravo

en.wikipedia.org...

The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire.

I'm guessing what you REALLY meant was the Bill of Rights?

en.wikipedia.org...

Yes I realized this after posting, my mistake. All part of trying to make a good post while at work and taking calls all day.

EDIT: And I just learned you can edit thread titles, interesting some forums don't let you do that.


Edit Again: www.archives.gov... I was right. Grrr. Bill of Rights = first 10 amendments.

If people are so dumb as to not know what a merchant is, well, a fool and his money are soon parted. They are doomed to get screwed over all the time, unfortunately. It's sad, but true. Maybe they don't deserve it, but it sure seems like they do, and they are fated to be slaves and servants of their betters.

Not all men are created equal. Everyone tries to pretend this is not so, but, if not, why are some people so much better than others? Hello? It is fair to give everyone an equal chance, but no matter what they are not going to end up equal, are they?

Since this is true, it is necessary to enact regulations to prevent the strong from preying on the weak. This is what the Constitution was supposed to do. Sadly, it has been totally suborned a long time ago.

I did something similar about the 2nd amendment, after getting annoyed by the misinterpretation of the the phrase "well-regulated" and made a T-shirt to illustrate it.

I researched every thesaurus I could find as far back as I could find them, and discovered that the term "well-regulated" at the time of the writing was a military term synonymous with "well-equipped".

When you read it like that, it's meaning becomes crystal-clear and unambiguous.

To prove the point, I found and listed all the cognate (meaning 3) words for regulated.

cog·nate   [kog-neyt] Show IPA adjective
1. related by birth; of the same parentage, descent, etc.
2. Linguistics. descended from the same language or form: such cognate languages as French and Spanish.
3. allied or similar in nature or quality.

Turns out that the further back in time you go, the more likely it refers to equipped. I suspected that the shift towards controlled occurred during and after the Industrial Revolution, when machines required regulators to function properly.

So I designed a T-shirt repeating the text of the 2nd Amendment with those words replacing "regulated".

I still have a few that I give to folks who need backup for their belief in the true meaning of the right.

But don't just take my word for it, go do some research and convince yourself.

HIPPIE version.... very quickly thrown together haha


"alright dude, there are rules that you just can't break, you should treat every brother and sister the same, and god gives everybody the same rules ya know, you, ya gotta live life to the fullest, ya gotta be free from the man(the man is bad), and always try to get happier(however you want)--And to keep it this way,the system is created by us, based on what we all want--And whenever the system starts bashin on our rights, we are totally required to stand up and bash the system, and to have a revolution, and rebootin the system based on what we all decide together will make us safer and happier as a group.But we have to be super careful to not mess up a good thing and let ourselves be dooped by a bogus cause; and dude history shows us that our people are going to be treated like schwag, while the evil is disguised as prosperity instead of wanting a change for the better. But when we keep seeing the same S#%T happening from the same punks in office doing the same thing, it is completely up to us as it should be to change the world for now and the future. These are the reasons the country was founded and the same reasons we have to change our ways."

SADHU

Originally posted by 42sadhu
HIPPIE version.... very quickly thrown together haha


"alright dude, there are rules that you just can't break, you should treat every brother and sister the same, and god gives everybody the same rules ya know, you, ya gotta live life to the fullest, ya gotta be free from the man(the man is bad), and always try to get happier(however you want)--And to keep it this way,the system is created by us, based on what we all want--And whenever the system starts bashin on our rights, we are totally required to stand up and bash the system, and to have a revolution, and rebootin the system based on what we all decide together will make us safer and happier as a group.But we have to be super careful to not mess up a good thing and let ourselves be dooped by a bogus cause; and dude history shows us that our people are going to be treated like schwag, while the evil is disguised as prosperity instead of wanting a change for the better. But when we keep seeing the same S#%T happening from the same punks in office doing the same thing, it is completely up to us as it should be to change the world for now and the future. These are the reasons the country was founded and the same reasons we have to change our ways."

SADHU

Star for the hippie version. If we can get a hood version, I may attempt to do a redneck version and piece them all together.

come on guys lets get some more translations and maybe we can put them all together for easy reading and post it all over facebook and such so it will be available to all regardless of comprehensive abilities

reply to post by WhiteSpectralMirror


The Declaration is NOT the most imoprtant piece of American writing.

That document is known as the Constitution. This is THE document which recognizes and guarantees your natural born rights as a US citizen. It was designed to protect you from government excess ( see the TJ quotes in my signature).

There are no amendments to the Declaration. It was written to justify our split from England as its colony. Those amendmends are to the Constitution which is the supreme law of the land. Respect and love for that document are the reason this country has been, for over two hundred years, THE example of how men can self govern free of tyrany.

However, that respect and love has slowly eroded over the years and is now despised by those in power....on both sides of the isle.

I am glad I will not be alive in 50 years.