Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Not much was needed to be changed in the below rendering of the Declaration of Independence, most of it is absolutely appropairate as written so long ago (changes are in CAPS). . don't shoot, I appeal you, as I exercise my right of free speech. . .



By John Hancock

Editorial License - II

WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
1. WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all PEOPLE 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 PEOPLE, 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 HUMANKIND are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of THE CITIZENS OF PICKERINGTON; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present CITY COUNCIL is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these CITIZENS. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.

THEY HAVE refused OUR Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.

THEY HAVE forbidden SPECIFIC MEMBERS OF COUNCIL to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till THEIR Assent should be obtained; OR HAVE CONVENIENTLY ORCHESTRATED APPARENT COMPLIANCE, and when so suspended, THEY HAVE utterly neglected to attend to them.

THEY HAVE refused to pass other Laws SUPPORTED AND VOTED for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.

THEY HAVE called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, AND REPEATEDLY STYMIED LEGISLATION AND ABUSED THE COUT SYSTEM for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with THEIR Measures.

THEY HAVE dissolved Representative COOPERATIVE EFFORTS repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness THEIR Invasions on the Rights of the People.

THEY HAVE refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected FAIRLY AND SQUARELY; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of the Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the CITY remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from DEVELOPERS, and the Convulsions within.

THEY HAVE endeavoured to prevent the Population of THIS CITY; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for ZONING; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the GOING RATE ON; AND CONTRACT ZONING OF; of new Appropriations of Lands.



By John Hancock

Editorial License - III

THEY HAVE obstructed the Administration of REFERENDUMS, by refusing THEIR Assent to Laws for establishing ORDERLY GROWTH.

THEY HAVE made CITIZENS dependent on THEIR Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of the DEVELOPERS.

THEY HAVE erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance, AND TAX THEM UNTO DEATH.

THEY HAVE kept among us, in Times of UNBELIEVABLE GROWTH, Standing Armies OF PUBLIC RELATIONS PERSONNEL, without the consent of our Legislatures.

THEY HAVE affected to render the SCHOOL DISTRICT INCAPABLE OF KEEPING UP, AND OUT OF THE BUSINESS OF EDUCATIONS, THEREFORE THROWING THEM INTO THE BUSINESS OF NUMBERS, FORCED SERVITUDE AND HARLOTRY.

THEY HAVE combined with others to subject us to a GROWTH foreign to our WILL, and ILLEGAL by our ZONING CODE AND CHARTER; giving THEIR Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

FOR quartering large Bodies of WEALTHY DEVELOPERS among us;

FOR protecting them, by a mock COMMUNITY AUTHORITY AGREEMENT, from Punishment for any ILLEGALITIES which they should commit on the Inhabitants of THIS CITY:

FOR cutting off our TRAVEL DOWN 256 with CLOGGING, DANGEROUS AND IN SUFFERABLE TRAFFIC :
FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent, AND SPENDING SUCH TAXES IN A RANDOM, SOMETIMES PUNATIV, AND BOTTOMLESS PIT SORT OF WAY:

FOR depriving us, in MOST Cases, of the Benefits of REFERENDUM AND PUBLIC WILL:

FOR transporting us beyond RECOVERY to be FORCED TO MOVE FROM OUR HOMES:

FOR abolishing the free System of PUBLIC HEARING in CITY PROVINCES, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and PATHETIC Instrument for THE GREATER AMUSEMENT OF SURROUNDING PROVINCES:

FOR taking away our Charter, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments AND PUBLIC HEARING:

FOR suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring AN EMERGENCY FOR themselves WHO ARE invested with Power to BENEFIT MONETARILY.



THEY HAVE abdicated Government here, by declaring us WITHOUT RECOURSE, WEAK AND UNORGANIZED, and waging War against us.



By John Hancock

Editorial License - IV

THEY HAVE plundered our SCHOOLS, ravaged our COMMUNITY, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

THEY ARE, at this Time, transporting large Armies of DEVELOPER Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

THEY HAVE constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on STATE ROUTED 256 to bear REFERENDUMS AND SOLUTIONS against their COUNCIL, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

THEY HAVE excited domestic REVOLT amongst us, and HAVE endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of CORPORATE RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPERS, the merciless Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all SENSE OF COMMUNITY IN EXCHANGE FOR THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR. .

IN every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for CHANGE AND MANAGED GROWTH in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered, IGNORED, IGNORANTLY REWRITTEN, OR CHALLENGED by repeated TABLING, HAGGLING, ATTORNEYS AND BACK ALLEY MEETINGS. A DESPOT, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the RULER of a free People.

NOR have we been wanting in Attentions to our TOWNSHIP Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by OUR COUNCIL to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our UNCONTROLLED GROWTH and Settlement here. We have appealed to their BOARD OF TRUSTEES, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, ANNEXATIONS AND ILLEGAL ZONING PROMISES, which, would inevitably FLOW INTO our COMMON SCHOOL DISTRICTS. They too have been BEATEN MERCILESSLY BY INJUSTICE AND THE ACTIONS OF COUNCIL. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

WE, therefore, the Representatives of the CITY OF PICKERINGTON, in GROUPS OUTSIDE THE DOORS assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of THIS CITY, solemnly Publish and Declare, That THIS CITY IS, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT FROM THE TYRANNY OF COUNCIL, MAYOR, MANAGER AND DEVELOPER; that WE are absolved from all Allegiance to the DEVELOPER, and that all political Connection between them and the DEVELOPER BOUGHT COUNCIL ET AL;, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as a free and independent CITY, WE have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which independent CITIES may of right do, INCLUDING DISSOLVING, UNINCORPORATING, AND IN GENERAL REBELLING. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our SHRINKING Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

THE CITIZENS AND TAXPAYERS OF THE CITY OF PICKERINGTON

IN DEFIANCE THIS 25TH DAY OF AUGUST, 2003

By John Hancock