We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all beings come into existence through the same interdependent processes of Nature; that they are endowed by these processes with inherent and inalienable rights, regardless of their usefulness to other beings; that among these are existence for their own sake, liberty, and the pursuit of Self-realization; that to secure these rights for themselves, governments have been instituted among humon beings to the exclusion of all other beings, deriving their powers from the consent of only one of the species governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these means/ends, it is the right of the nonhumon to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to best guarantee all beings self-determination. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that beings 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 nonhumon beings; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to expunge the present systems of government. The history of the vast majority of present humon societies is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over the rest of the Universe. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
They have refused their assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for all beings, though such laws have been submitted by those rare humons who understand the interdependence of all beings.
They have poorly enforced those few beneficial laws which have been adopted.
They have ignored nonhumon beings and denied our representation in their governments.
They have persecuted and even murdered those people who feel close affinity with the nonhumon and who have fought for our rights.
They have claimed authority from some source outside of the Universe and have denied the powers inherent in all beings.
They have arrogantly thought themselves independent of the rest of existence, ignorant of the interdependence of all beings.
They have supposed themselves the "apex of evolution" on Earth, due in part to the structure of their brains and culture, and have ignored the unique capabilities and inherent awareness of all beings.
They have determined our value according to our usefulness to them.
They have decided that our futures should depend upon their will alone and have devised methods and plans for the domination of much of Earth and even Mars.
They have seriously overpopulated Earth, using a disproportionate share for themselves.
They have mined us, drilled us, relocated us, transformed us, and blown us up through nuclear fission, polluting our ecosystems and altering our cycles.
They have plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our homes, clearcut our forests, and destroyed our lives, altering our habitats and driving many of us to extinction.
They have unnecessarily introduced species of one ecosystem into another, thereby interfering with many species' self-determination.
They have started to recombine, create, and introduce new organisms into ecosystems, with unknown consequences.
They have diverted very little energy to alternative ways of living or restoration of damaged ecosystems.
They have called for more research on "environmental" issues which demand immediate action.
They have created economic systems and lifestyles that depend on an increasing exploitation of Earth.
They have destroyed parts of Earth in their own wars and domination of each other.
They have waged cruel war against humon nature itself, violating its infinite possibilities by creating an ego that demands insatiable gratification and control, pitting self against other, male against female, old against young, race against race, nation against nation, and humon against nonhumon.
In every stage of these oppressions we have reacted with subtle and not so subtle warnings that all beings are interdependent and that domination by one being harms all beings: our repeated warnings have been answered by repeated injuries.
A species whose government is thus marked by every act which may define tyranny is unfit to be the ruler of beings who deserve to be free. Future ages will scarcely believe that the arrogance of one species adventured, within the short compass of a few millennia only, to lay a foundation so broad and so undisguised for tyranny over a world created through interdependent self-determination.
Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our humon siblings. We have warned them from time to time of their attempts to extend their domination over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our coorigination and constant interdependence, as we eat, breathe, think, coinhabit, and shape each other. We have appealed to their instinct, emotions, intuition, logic, and innate compassion and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which would inevitably destroy them and many of us. They have been mostly deaf to the voice of justice and of interrelatedness. We could have a free and great Universe together, but a communication of grandeur and of freedom, it seems, is below their dignity. We must therefore end the domination by humons of all other beings, or they and many more of us will be destroyed.
We, therefore, the Universe so assembled, do in our name, and by the power of all beings, reject and renounce all humon social structures and worldviews of domination which ignore the interdependence of all beings and do joyously publish and declare that all beings are, and of right ought to be free and interdependent; that we are absolved from allegiance to all forms of humon domination; that we support only humon social structures and worldviews that embrace Universal interdependence; and that as free and interdependent beings we may exist for our own sake, evolve, pursue Self-realization, and do all other acts and things which free and interdependent beings do.
And for the support of this declaration, we mutually pledge to each other our existence, our futures, and our integrity.
Rain Tegerdine teaches Permaculture at Lost Valley Educational Center.
Editor's note: "humon" is the author's preferred spelling.
©2000* Talking Leaves
Summer/Fall 2000
Volume 10, Number 2
Politics, Change, and Ecology