It is a bitter pill to swallow, how different reality is from the American Dream of self-government... how often unreasonableness, despotism, even outright cruelty prevails and how slowly real, positive change takes place.

American's have great expectations! We will use our painful frustrations of the world today as steppingstones, motivating us to find our way to overcome big government tyranny and oppression. We will not "let the heroes in our souls perish in lonely frustration." True justice exists! It is real! It is possible! It is meant to be ours!

The drug laws are obstructions of justice. Prohibition is The New Jim Crow (by Michelle Alexander) reveals racists are alive and well in law enforcement and through out the justice system. The Divide "as infuriating as it is impossible to put down" shows the justice gap coincides with the wealth gap.

The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap by Matt Taibbi ..."offers the searing indictment that America’s wealth gap has corrupted the nation’s system of justice, fostering a “legal schizophrenia” that harshly prosecutes the poor but practices selective leniency on Wall Street. How can it be?" He asks. "That a street drifter such as Tory Marone serves 40 days in jail after cops find half a reefer in his pocket, but not a single executive of HSBC faces criminal charges after the bank “admitted to laundering billions of dollars for drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia, washing money for terrorist-connected organizations in the Middle East, allowing rogue states under formal sanctions by the U.S. government to move money freely by the tens of billions through its American subsidiary, [and] letting Russian mobsters wash money on a grand scale”

You don't have to be a genius IQ to tell there is NO JUSTICE in letting these banksters off with only financial penalties. The so called authorities did the same as the banksters,"they took money to look the other way."

America's prison population was 300,000 in 1972. Now we have 2,300,000!! Yikes! Abraham Lincoln remarked that "The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly." And we see with extreme prejudice here! It is way past time to Repeal drug prohibition!!

A declaration is an affirmation. Independence means self-government. They could have called it, The Affirmation of Self-Government. However I am sure we can all agree, The Declaration of Independence, sounds way more cool! It announces and asserts our affirmation of self-government; freedom and liberty for all.

Self-government is about transparency and responsibility. It's about keeping our government accountable and their power in check. Sometimes a great notion comes along that can save a great nation!

One rebel with just cause, Daniel Ellsberg co-founded the Freedom of the Press Foundation. “A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know.” Judge Murray Gurfein is quoted from the Pentagon Papers case on June 17, 1971.

All who follow a code of ethics or principles are self-governors. Our system is meant to protect the self-governors from those without ethics and principles; perpetrators of fraud, rape and violence. The state does not run the affairs of people in a free society. It upholds justice between people who conduct their own affairs.

"Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. asked me to thank you for sending him a copy of your book, To End The War on Drugs - A Guide for Politicians, the Press and Public. He thought the Drug Enforcement Administration might find the book an interesting read, so he has shared it with us. Thank you for sharing this publication with us," wrote Gary R. Owen, Acting Chief Office of Congressional And Public Affairs for the DEA.

Creator of the Drug Truth Network - Dean Becker's new book: To End The War on Drugs, "eviscerates the logic of drug prohibitionists,"exclaims April M. Short, AlterNet Drugs Editor. An alphabetical outline of all the experts who are quoted in the book can be found here. Please like and share. Thanks!

Hubba, Hubba!! The American Public Health Association did adopt a sweeping resolution last November calling for “a full reorientation” of U.S. drug policy “toward a health approach to drug use.” The resolution condemns the drug war as “an engine of mass incarceration” that has only amplified the harms of drug misuse, such as fatal overdose and disease, while causing or contributing to frightening levels of prohibition-related violence."

“A man" (meaning our species) "does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality,” writes true American hero, John F. Kennedy in Profiles in Courage. It takes fearlessness to openly buck the system.

"It was a passage from Herbert Agar's book The Price of Union about an act of courage by an earlier senator from Massachusetts, John Quincy Adams, that gave Kennedy the idea of writing about senatorial courage. He showed the passage to Sorensen and asked him to see if he could find some more examples. This Sorensen did, and eventually they had enough not just for an article, as Kennedy had originally envisaged, but a book.[2] With help from research assistants and the Library of Congress, Kennedy wrote the book while bedridden during 1954 and 1955, recovering from back surgery."

Kennedy was elected to the House the year I was born. As I began to attend school he began serving in the Senate. He was Senator Kennedy from Mass. from '52 until he was elected president in 1960. His life and death will always be tied to memories of my high school years. It is hard to believe; there are still unanswered questions, unresolved issues about his death. Have you watched Dark Legacy and Dark Legacy II? II is concerning John-John's death.

“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you,” Oscar Wilde warned long ago.

The unconscionable lack of medical treatment of our courageous veterans boggles the mind. Shame on US!!

We must do more than grieve about the, "extended delays in health care appointments suffered by veterans across the country, some of whom died while waiting for appointments and care." Sen. John Walsh (D-Mont.), said in a statement to Business Insider. "It is our duty to come together for real solutions for our heroes." According to an estimate from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, ABC reports, "Nearly 1,900 military veterans are thought to have taken their own lives in just 2014 alone!" At an average of, "22 veterans per day..." Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki has ordered a "face-to-face audit" at all Department of Veterans Affairs clinics, a spokeswoman tells CNN.

“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.” Be a self-governor, a rebel with just cause, an active, participating patriot! Ralph Waldo Emerson encourages us to follow our heartfelt principles (those truths we find to be "self-evident") to peace and happiness.

Our founders knew big government would always mean a gang of evil doers, often hiding tyranny under the guise of good intentions.

We are all drug users. "...almost 100% of Americans use them" Many believe in self-government and self-medication! We take responsibility for our own health and research any legal drug prescribed before using.

Many so-called illegal drugs are available in pharmaceutical forms. Criminal convictions for black market legal drug activities and against legal drug manufacturers (for harm and deaths caused by their government (FDA) approved product) dwarf convictions for illegal drug use/enterprise. Addiction rates for tobacco, alcohol and prescription drugs soar far above the 1% of our people actually addicted to anything illegal.

Unjust laws blur the lines between the good guys and the bad guys, leading to a prevalent disrespect for all law. Unjust laws make folks feel justified in breaking them and other laws.

Speaking of our unethical, unprincipled laws: It is morally bankrupt to punish nonviolent adults for making a safer health choice, cannabis or marijuana, compared to other medicinal/social drugs. NO deaths from this botanical medicine!

This story draws attention to the questionable use of "swat" tactics to invade Texas homes to search for marijuana or other drugs, and shows that Texans know their rights and will, "speak truth to power."

The tobacco, alcohol and prescription drug gangs cause more death annually than all illicit drugs.

Right now, really violent predators roam free and rape kits go unprocessed while our precious resources are depleted chasing nonviolent drug users. Treatment is seven times cheaper than prison. Get tough on violent crime! Show fiscal responsibility, demand morally correct policy! Restore Justice, the guardian of liberty!

Together we can save the American dream, self-government, freedom from big government tyranny, oppression. True patriots challenge the government when it’s wrong! Be a Rebel with Just Cause!

It's time to Restore Justice! “It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.” James Madison noted. He would be appalled by some of our unethical, unprincipled laws that one can not defend on true scientific, factual or moral grounds.

How can law enforcement serve and protect under these conditions? Real warriors, true American heroes, fight for what is right! They are NOT robot enforcers or killing machines that just follow orders. They get their adrenaline rush making us all safer, catching child abusers, violent rapist and killers! Save lives instead of ruining them. Get tough on violent crime!

Stop the epidemic of “policing for profit!” Asset forfeiture changes police priorities to be more about gathering revenue than public safety. Forfeiture practices have gutted a number of core Constitutional and legal mechanisms important to the impartial administration of justice: the rights to due process and the right to a fair trial. It has victimized many innocent citizens!

I am really saddened that we are so overtaxed and over regulated that I can hardly see that we have improved our lot since Charles Dicken's wrote Bleak House exposing the lack of justice in England's courts and the treatment of women who have children out of wedlock. Have you watched, "Philomena"? It is just so frustrating, disapointing......how little things had improved for women in over a century!! Women are somewhat better off today but research how many rape kits go unprocessed.

The predatory capitalists such as the morally bankrupt banksters, the military industrial complex and the drug companies including alcohol, tobacco and other empire builders with leaders in their pockets are the evil doers our founding documents are meant to protect us from. They make capitalism abhorrent with their predatory capitalism. Predatory capitalism due to big government interference and protection destroys people, benign or ethical capitalism, America's founders' vision of the free market, creates a world of abundance for all.

Choose love over hate. Practice the KISS method: Keep It Simple, Sweetheart; take the world's smallest political quiz!!

I salute all true patriots, rebels with just cause who do everything they are able to do to realize the American dream! A dream worth striving for: of self-government; freedom from big government tyranny and oppression! Strengthen our system, set it to rights! Escape from tyranny!

The real cause of this huge quagmire of failed policy is the beast, big government, that money hungry beast, Uncle Sam! Ma Freedom tells it like it is! The beauty of it is when we focus on down-sizing our government we regain our roots of self-government and secure the blessings of liberty for future generations and ourselves.

Together we will ...Restore Justice, the Guardian of Liberty! and Save the American Dream!!

Since 2006 I have awarded two "Rebel with Just Cause" portraits yearly, each dedicated to the freedom philosophy or the American dream. True American patriotism is a willingness to shoulder our duty, to challenge the government when it’s wrong, to be a Rebel with Just Cause! "Please "like" my Rebels With Just Cause FaceBook page if you have not already done so. I appreciate your encouragement more than words can say!"

Compiled and written by (my maiden name was Henry) Colleen McCool

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