Why don't people stand outside of the most important government buildings they can get to and recite?

Question

the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence?

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 sufferable than to right themselves . . .

I am seriously proposing peaceful, public gatherings. The purpose: to show that the foundation of American government was an appeal to natural rights--to the most universal ideas that a group of eighteenth-century geniuses could devise.

Blue Ridge, that is all well said. But do keep in mind that the men who signed the Declaration and gave us our rights faced death by execution the moment they put their pens to it.

Kobaincito, since you don't allow email, go to:
http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_NYC_home

Anyone else, A.N.S.W.E.R. is planning a demonstration in D.C.and other cities on September 15. Go to their website.

Answer 1

My answer would begin with "Congress shall make no law" as an American citizen you know the rest. I thought it was your right to peacefully assemble and petition the Government for the redress of grievences. Seems you have had that right taken away from you, now you would be a terrorist if you did that. I am an Australian citizen and we do not even have that right anymore. The police would come in riot gear and instigate the violence. The media would show the protesters instigateing the violence. go figure

Answer 2

Actually Austin, I am game. Truth is I am not from here, but i live in NY and I firmly believe in the US constitution. I have been an admirer of the supposed freedoms to be begotten in the US since i was a kid. Needless to say, when i finally came over i realized it was all BS.
There are quite a few discontented US people who voice their opinion at every corner but hardly ever in groups and almost never visibly. If you know of a NY group that is actively engaging the government on the war, future wars, immigrants rights, health care or the assault on Latin American sovereignty via multinationals, FTA's and the alliance for progress, please drop me a line somewhere.
I am more than willing to read that admirable document with my US brethren. And I don't particularly mind being deported.... as it is i am planning my escape. Biggest dissapointment of my life, this country has been.

Answer 3

Because people are too busy working and raising families to spend their precious little time in an activity that will accomplish little if anything in so far as raising the standard of living for the American People.

(Additional)

Seriously, I'm not trying to be apathetic or bury my head in the sand like an ostrich. Our current leaders in Congress and the White House do seem to be controlled by the almighty dollar of lobbyists and those already in power who are merely seeking to control their own interests of greed. Example: the likes of the big health care maintenance organizations and the out-of-control pharmaceutical industry.

But specifically, what are you trying to accomplish with all of this and more specifically, where do you feel that your rights of free speech have been violated by the government?

Answer 4

Like any...EVERY "peaceful gathering" you get some jerks who turn it into a full scale riot. They begin by trashing and then thrashing. You're taking the Declaration of Independence a little out of context but go right ahead. You're the one that has all the time in the world to waste on such drivel.

Answer 5

Because you would be ARRESTED.
************************

I guess you know about the "peanut butter protest?" These people handed out peanut butter sandwiches to protest Halliburton OVERCHARGING the government for spoiled food, and now each of them has a DOSSIER ON THEM. As "potential terrorists."

THIS REGIME IS OUT OF CONTROL.
**********************************

“Jan. 30, 2006 issue - The demonstration seemed harmless enough. Late on a June afternoon in 2004, a motley group of about 10 peace activists showed up outside the Houston headquarters of Halliburton, the giant military contractor once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. They were there to protest the corporation's supposed "war profiteering." The demonstrators wore papier-mache masks and handed out free peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches to Halliburton employees as they left work. The idea, according to organizer Scott Parkin, was to call attention to allegations that the company was overcharging on a food contract for troops in Iraq. "It was tongue-in-street political theater," Parkin says.

But that's not how the Pentagon saw it. To U.S. Army analysts at the top-secret Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), the peanut-butter protest was regarded as a potential threat to national security. Created three years ago by the Defense Department, CIFA's role is "force protection"—tracking threats and terrorist plots against military installations and personnel inside the United States. In May 2003, Paul Wolfowitz, then deputy Defense secretary, authorized a fact-gathering operation code-named TALON—short for Threat and Local Observation Notice—that would collect "raw information" about "suspicious incidents." The data would be fed to CIFA to help the Pentagon's "terrorism threat warning process," according to an internal Pentagon memo.

A Defense document shows that Army analysts wrote a report on the Halliburton protest and stored it in CIFA's database. It's not clear why the Pentagon considered the protest worthy of attention—although organizer Parkin had previously been arrested while demonstrating at ExxonMobil headquarters (the charges were dropped). But there are now questions about whether CIFA exceeded its authority and conducted unauthorized spying on innocent people and organizations. A Pentagon memo obtained by NEWSWEEK shows that the deputy Defense secretary now acknowledges that some TALON reports may have contained information on U.S. citizens and groups that never should have been retained. The number of reports with names of U.S. persons could be in the thousands, says a senior Pentagon official who asked not be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10965509/site/newsweek/

Answer 6

It's true they would send you to jail. They actually put a man in jail in NY for saying the words of the first amendment.

Yeah.. you have freedom here.. so long as you do what your told..

Answer 7

The words that stand out in your question and almost answer the question itself is...
"government buildings they can get to "
emphasis on THEY CAN GET TO.
Demonstrators are very dangerous.
They might have explosives in the sticks they use to hold their signs.
Or the sticks might be pointy at the end.
Thank GOD for heavily kevlared security personnel keeping us safe from readers of the Constitution.

Answer 8

Because they think the next person will do it for them..we ALL NEED TO BE INVOLVED HERE OR WE'LL NEVER GET OUR RIGHTS BACk.

Answer 9

all the power to you.