Subjects or Citizens
In Just a Thought, July 28th, 2010
Is there a difference between being considered a subject, or being a citizen?
Recently available evidence shows that our founders were keenly aware of the difference. When Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence justifying our break from English rule, he often blacked out words in favor of a different word.
In one such edit, he replaced a blacked out word with the word “citizens”. Only recently have we been able to decipher what word he had so thoroughly blacked out. He blacked out the word “subjects” in favor of the word “citizens”.
Our founders were so committed to a new form of representative government that was responsible to its citizens that the very idea of people as subjects to a noble class was repugnant to them.
Here, at the dawn of the 21st century, our ruling class in DC seems to have lost any commitment at all to the voice of “We the people”. We are merely their humble subjects—it is time we rise up and throw these pretenders out.
